Introduction to Parallel Computing

George Karypis Principles of Parallel Algorithm Design

Outline

Overview of some Serial Algorithms Parallel Algorithm vs Parallel Formulation Elements of a Parallel Algorithm/Formulation Common Decomposition Methods
concurrency

extractor!

Common Mapping Methods

parallel

overhead reducer!

Some Serial Algorithms

Working Examples Dense Matrix-Matrix & Matrix-Vector Multiplication Sparse Matrix-Vector Multiplication Gaussian Elimination Floyds All-pairs Shortest Path Quicksort Minimum/Maximum Finding Heuristic Search15-puzzle problem

Dense Matrix-Vector Multiplication

Dense Matrix-Matrix Multiplication

Sparse Matrix-Vector Multiplication

Gaussian Elimination

Floyds All-Pairs Shortest Path

Quicksort

Minimum Finding

15Puzzle Problem

Parallel Algorithm vs Parallel Formulation

Parallel Formulation
Refers May

to a parallelization of a serial algorithm.

Parallel Algorithm
represent an entirely different algorithm than the one used serially.

We primarily focus on Parallel Formulations

Our

goal today is to primarily discuss how to develop such parallel formulations. Of course, there will always be examples of parallel algorithms that were not derived from serial algorithms.

Elements of a Parallel Algorithm/Formulation

Pieces of work that can be done concurrently

tasks processes vs processors

Mapping of the tasks onto multiple processors Distribution of input/output & intermediate data across the different processors Management the access of shared data

either input or intermediate

Synchronization of the processors at various points of the parallel execution

Holy Grail: Maximize concurrency and reduce overheads due to parallelization! Maximize potential speedup!

Finding Concurrent Pieces of Work

Decomposition:
The

process of dividing the computation into smaller pieces of work i.e., tasks

Tasks are programmer defined and are considered to be indivisible

Example: Dense Matrix-Vector Multiplication

Tasks can be of different size. granularity of a task

Example: Query Processing

Query:

Example: Query Processing

Finding concurrent tasks

Task-Dependency Graph

In most cases, there are dependencies between the different tasks

certain

task(s) can only start once some other task(s) have finished
e.g., producer-consumer relationships

These dependencies are represented using a DAG called task-dependency graph

Task-Dependency Graph (cont)

Key Concepts Derived from the TaskDependency Graph

Degree

of Concurrency

The number of tasks that can be concurrently executed

we usually care about the average degree of concurrency

Critical

Path

The longest vertex-weighted path in the graph

The weights represent task size

Task

granularity affects both of the above characteristics

Task-Interaction Graph

Captures the pattern of interaction between tasks

This

graph usually contains the task-dependency graph as a subgraph

i.e., there may be interactions between tasks even if there are no dependencies

these interactions usually occur due to accesses on shared data

Task Dependency/Interaction Graphs

These graphs are important in developing effectively mapping the tasks onto the different processors
Maximize

concurrency and minimize overheads

More on this later

Common Decomposition Methods

Data Decomposition Recursive Decomposition Exploratory Decomposition Speculative Decomposition Hybrid Decomposition

Task decomposition methods

Recursive Decomposition
Suitable for problems that can be solved using the divide-and-conquer paradigm Each of the subproblems generated by the divide step becomes a task

Example: Quicksort

Example: Finding the Minimum

Note that we can obtain divide-and-conquer algorithms for problems that are traditionally solved using nondivide-and-conquer approaches

Recursive Decomposition

How good are the decompositions that it produces?

average

concurrency? critical path?

How do the quicksort and min-finding decompositions measure-up?

Data Decomposition

Used to derive concurrency for problems that operate on large amounts of data The idea is to derive the tasks by focusing on the multiplicity of data Data decomposition is often performed in two steps

Step 1: Partition the data Step 2: Induce a computational partitioning from the data partitioning Input/Output/Intermediate?

Which data should we partition?

Well all of the aboveleading to different data decomposition methods

How do induce a computational partitioning?

Owner-computes rule

Example: Matrix-Matrix Multiplication

Partitioning the output data

Example: Matrix-Matrix Multiplication

Partitioning the intermediate data

Data Decomposition

Is the most widely-used decomposition technique

after

all parallel processing is often applied to problems that have a lot of data splitting the work based on this data is the natural way to extract high-degree of concurrency

It is used by itself or in conjunction with other decomposition methods

Hybrid

decomposition

Exploratory Decomposition

Used to decompose computations that correspond to a search of a space of solutions

Example: 15-puzzle Problem

Exploratory Decomposition
It is not as general purpose It can result in speedup anomalies

engineered

slow-down or superlinear

speedup

Speculative Decomposition
Used to extract concurrency in problems in which the next step is one of many possible actions that can only be determined when the current tasks finishes This decomposition assumes a certain outcome of the currently executed task and executes some of the next steps

Just

like speculative execution at the microprocessor level

Example: Discrete Event Simulation

Speculative Execution

If predictions are wrong

work

is wasted work may need to be undone

state-restoring overhead

memory/computations

However, it may be the only way to extract concurrency!

Mapping the Tasks

Why do we care about task mapping?

Can I just randomly assign them to the available processors?

Proper mapping is critical as it needs to minimize the parallel processing overheads

If Tp is the parallel runtime on p processors and Ts is the serial runtime, then the total overhead To is p*Tp Ts

The work done by the parallel system beyond that required by the serial system Load imbalance Inter-process communication

they can be at odds with each other

Overhead sources:

remember the holy grail

coordination/synchronization/data-sharing

Why Mapping can be Complicated?

Proper mapping needs to take into account the task-dependency and interaction graphs

Are the tasks available a priori?

Static vs dynamic task generation Are they uniform or non-uniform? Do we know them a priori?

How about their computational requirements?

Task dependency graph

How much data is associated with each task? How about the interaction patterns between the tasks?

Are they static or dynamic? Do we know them a priori? Are they data instance dependent? Are they regular or irregular? Are they read-only or read-write?

Task interaction graph

Depending on the above characteristics different mapping techniques are required of different complexity and cost

Example: Simple & Complex Task Interaction

Mapping Techniques for Load Balancing

Be aware
The

assignment of tasks whose aggregate computational requirements are the same does not automatically ensure load balance.

Each processor is assigned three tasks but (a) is better than (b)!

Load Balancing Techniques

Static
The

tasks are distributed among the processors prior to the execution Applicable for tasks that are

generated statically known and/or uniform computational requirements

Dynamic
The

tasks are distributed among the processors during the execution of the algorithm
i.e., tasks & data are migrated

Applicable

for tasks that are

generated dynamically unknown computational requirements

Static MappingArray Distribution

Suitable for algorithms that

use

data decomposition their underlying input/output/intermediate data are in the form of arrays

Block Distribution Cyclic Distribution Block-Cyclic Distribution Randomized Block Distributions

1D/2D/3D

Examples: Block Distributions

Examples: Block Distributions

Example: Block-Cyclic Distributions

Gaussian Elimination
The active portion of the array shrinks as the computations progress

Random Block Distributions

Sometimes the computations are performed only at certain portions of an array

sparse

matrix-matrix multiplication

Random Block Distributions

Better load balance can be achieved via a random block distribution

Graph Partitioning

A mapping can be achieved by directly partitioning the task interaction graph.

EG:

Finite element mesh-based computations

Directly partitioning this graph

Example: Sparse Matrix-Vector

Another instance of graph partitioning

Dynamic Load Balancing Schemes

There is a huge body of research

Centralized

Schemes

A certain processors is responsible for giving out work

master-slave paradigm task granularity

Issue:

Distributed

Schemes

Work can be transferred between any pairs of processors. Issues:

How do the processors get paired? Who initiates the work transfer? push vs pull How much work is transferred?

Mapping to Minimize Interaction Overheads

Maximize data locality Minimize volume of data-exchange Minimize frequency of interactions Minimize contention and hot spots Overlap computation with interactions Selective data and computation replication
Achieving the above is usually an interplay of decomposition and mapping and is usually done iteratively