ParaFPGA : parallel computing with flexible hardware

ParaFPGA 2009 is a Mini-Symposium on parallel computing with field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), held in conjunction with the ParCo conference on parallel computing. FPGAs allow to map an algorithm directly onto the hardware, optimize the architecture for parallel execution, and dynamically reconfigure the system in between different phases of the computation. Compared to e.g. Cell processors, GPGPU's (general-purpose GPU's) and other high-performance devices, FPGAs are considered as flexible hardware in the sense that the building blocks of one or more single or multiple FPGAs can be interconnected freely to build a highly parallel system. In this Mini-Symposium the following topics are addressed: clustering FPGAs, evolvable hardware using FPGAs and fast dynamic reconfiguration

Parallel Computing on a PC Cluster

The tremendous advance in computer technology in the past decade has made it possible to achieve the performance of a supercomputer on a very small budget. We have built a multi-CPU cluster of Pentium PC capable of parallel computations using the Message Passing Interface (MPI). We will discuss the configuration, performance, and application of the cluster to our work in physics.Comment: 3 pages, uses Latex and aipproc.cl

Parallel computing for the finite element method

A finite element method is presented to compute time harmonic microwave fields in three dimensional configurations. Nodal-based finite elements have been coupled with an absorbing boundary condition to solve open boundary problems. This paper describes how the modeling of large devices has been made possible using parallel computation, New algorithms are then proposed to implement this formulation on a cluster of workstations (10 DEC ALPHA 300X) and on a CRAY C98. Analysis of the computation efficiency is performed using simple problems. The electromagnetic scattering of a plane wave by a perfect electric conducting airplane is finally given as example