A Project-Based HPC Course for Single-Box Computers

Title	A Project-Based HPC Course for Single-Box Computers
Publication Type	Book Chapter
Year of Publication	2016
Authors	Bederián, CSergio, Wolovick, N
Book Title	2016 Workshop on Education for High-Performance Computing, EduHPC@SC 2016, Salt Lake City, UT, USA, November 14, 2016
Pagination	1–6
Publisher	IEEE Computer Society
Abstract	Throughout three iterations and six years we have developed a project-based course in HPC for single-box computers tailored to science students in general. The course is based on strong premises: showing that assembly is what actually runs on machines, dividing parallelism in three dimensions (ILP, DLP, TLP), and using them incrementally in a single numerical simulation throughout the course working in interdisciplinary pairs (CS, non-CS). The final goal is to explore how to use all the available transistors in a die. Assembly proved a great tool to show how bare-metal works, an alternative-semantics approach to programs, and a tool to demystify compiler technology. Parallelism is tackled gradually with a clear division into instruction, data, and thread parallelism. GPUs, through CUDA in particular, are used as a radically different approach to the three dimensions of parallelism. Each dimension is explored in a gradual manner, starting from a sequential toy-yet-interesting numerical simulation. After using each form of parallelism and submitting a short report, the experiences are put together in group discussion unveiling the strengths and weaknesses of each form of parallelism for each class of numerical simulation. Although there is a high variance in the students' background, CS and non-CS students pair well in project development, generating understanding and value of the disciplines. The experience proved successful, with former students producing parallel accelerated code of their own in their disciplines.
URL	https://doi.org/10.1109/EduHPC.2016.005
DOI	10.1109/EduHPC.2016.005

PDF (Full text):