Formal Semantics of a Subset of the Paderborn's BSPlib

PUB (Paderborn University BSPLib) is a C library supporting the development of Bulk-Synchronous Parallel (BSP) algorithms. The BSP model allows an estimation of the execution time, avoids deadlocks and indeterminism. This paper presents a formal operational semantics for a C+PUB subset language using the Coq proof assistant and a certified N-body computation as example of using this for-mal semantics. 1

Transforming non textually aligned SPMD programs into textually aligned SPMD programs by using rewriting rules

International audienceThe problem of analyzing parallel programs that access shared memory and use barrier synchronization is known to be hard to study. For a special case of those programs with minimal SPMD (Single Program Multiple Data) constructs, a formal definition of textually aligned barriers with an operational semantics has been proposed in previous work. Then, the textual alignement of the synchronization barriers that is defined prevents deadlocks. However, the textual alignement property is not verified by all SPMD programs. We propose a set of transformation rules using rewriting techniques which allows to turn a non-textually aligned program to be textually aligned. So, we can benefit of a simple static analysis for deadlock detection. We show that the rewrite rules form a terminating confluent system and we prove that the transformation rules preserve the semantics of the programs

Volunteer computing

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2001.Includes bibliographical references (p. 205-216).This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.This thesis presents the idea of volunteer computing, which allows high-performance parallel computing networks to be formed easily, quickly, and inexpensively by enabling ordinary Internet users to share their computers' idle processing power without needing expert help. In recent years, projects such as SETI@home have demonstrated the great potential power of volunteer computing. In this thesis, we identify volunteer computing's further potentials, and show how these can be achieved. We present the Bayanihan system for web-based volunteer computing. Using Java applets, Bayanihan enables users to volunteer their computers by simply visiting a web page. This makes it possible to set up parallel computing networks in a matter of minutes compared to the hours, days, or weeks required by traditional NOW and metacomputing systems. At the same time, Bayanihan provides a flexible object-oriented software framework that makes it easy for programmers to write various applications, and for researchers to address issues such as adaptive parallelism, fault-tolerance, and scalability. Using Bayanihan, we develop a general-purpose runtime system and APIs, and show how volunteer computing's usefulness extends beyond solving esoteric mathematical problems to other, more practical, master-worker applications such as image rendering, distributed web-crawling, genetic algorithms, parametric analysis, and Monte Carlo simulations. By presenting a new API using the bulk synchronous parallel (BSP) model, we further show that contrary to popular belief and practice, volunteer computing need not be limited to master-worker applications, but can be used for coarse-grain message-passing programs as well. Finally, we address the new problem of maintaining reliability in the presence of malicious volunteers. We present and analyze traditional techniques such as voting, and new ones such as spot-checking, encrypted computation, and periodic obfuscation. Then, we show how these can be integrated in a new idea called credibility-based fault-tolerance, which uses probability estimates to limit and direct the use of redundancy. We validate this new idea with parallel Monte Carlo simulations, and show how it can achieve error rates several orders-of-magnitude smaller than traditional voting for the same slowdown.by Luis F.G. Sarmenta.Ph.D