Military College of

Signals
National University
of Sciences &
ASSIGNEMNT 2

Parallel and Distributed Computing

Submission Date: 28/2/2025

Course: BEIS-2

Submitted to: Ma’am Aiman Sultan

Submitted by: Usama Hanif

Parallel Distributed Computing

Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................................................... 3

2. UNDERSTANDING HYBRID MEMORY MODELS........................................................................................ 3

2.1. SHARED MEMORY MODEL..........................................................................................................................3

2.2. DISTRIBUTED MEMORY MODEL....................................................................................................................4

3. WHY HYBRID MODELS ARE BENEFICIAL FOR LARGE-SCALE PARALLEL APPLICATIONS..............................4

4. ILLUSTRATION: HYBRID PROGRAMMING APPROACH (MPI + OPENMP)..................................................5

4.1. HOW MPI + OPENMP WORKS IN A HYBRID MODEL.......................................................................................5

4.2. EXAMPLE SCENARIO: WEATHER FORECASTING SIMULATION...............................................................................5

5. CONCLUSION......................................................................................................................................... 6

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Parallel Distributed Computing

Hybrid Memory Models in High-Performance

Computing (HPC)
1. Introduction
In modern High-Performance Computing (HPC), large-scale applications require efficient memory
management and parallelization strategies to maximize computational performance. Hybrid memory
models, which combine shared memory and distributed memory, have emerged as a powerful
approach for handling complex and data-intensive computations. This model is particularly beneficial
for large-scale parallel applications that run on modern supercomputers or clusters.

2. Understanding Hybrid Memory Models

In modern High-Performance Computing (HPC), hybrid memory models integrate two fundamental
memory paradigms: shared memory and distributed memory. This approach combines the strengths
of both models to enhance computational efficiency, scalability, and resource utilization, making it
suitable for large-scale parallel applications.

2.1. Shared Memory Model

The shared memory model allows multiple processors within a single computing node to access a
common memory space. Since all processors share the same memory, communication between
them occurs through shared variables rather than explicit data transfer. This reduces communication
overhead and enables faster access to data. Shared memory architectures are commonly found in
multi-core processors and Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), where multiple threads operate on the
same dataset.

Figure 1.1

A popular programming model for shared memory parallelism is OpenMP (Open Multi-Processing),
which enables developers to efficiently distribute workloads among multiple threads within a single
computing node. While this model is highly efficient for intra-node parallelism, it does not scale well
across multiple nodes in a distributed system.

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2.2. Distributed Memory Model

In contrast, the distributed memory model assigns each processing node its own private memory,
meaning that data must be explicitly exchanged between nodes using message-passing techniques.
This model is well-suited for large-scale HPC clusters and supercomputers, where computations are
distributed across multiple machines. However, communication between nodes introduces
additional complexity, including network latency and synchronization challenges.

Figure 1.2

The Message Passing Interface (MPI) is a widely used standard for implementing distributed
memory parallelism, allowing processes to communicate efficiently across a network of nodes.
Although distributed memory architectures provide excellent scalability, the need for frequent data
exchanges can impact performance, especially for applications requiring extensive inter-node
communication.

3. Why Hybrid Models are Beneficial for Large-Scale Parallel Applications

Hybrid models are widely used in scientific simulations, machine learning, weather forecasting,
molecular dynamics, and other computationally intensive fields because they offer several
advantages:

1. Improved Performance and Scalability

 Allows applications to scale across thousands of processors while efficiently using

shared memory within nodes.
 Reduces communication overhead by keeping intra-node data exchange minimal.

2. Optimized Resource Utilization

 Maximizes the use of multi-core processors within a node while leveraging multiple
nodes for large-scale computations.

3. Reduced Communication Bottlenecks

 Shared memory within a node enables faster data access compared to sending
messages between nodes.
 Reduces the need for frequent inter-node communication, which is a major
performance bottleneck in distributed computing.

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4. Flexibility and Adaptability

 Can be tailored to different HPC architectures, depending on problem size and

hardware constraints.
 Allow programmers to optimize different parts of an application using the most
suitable parallelization strategy.

4. Illustration: Hybrid Programming Approach (MPI + OpenMP)

A common hybrid programming approach in HPC involves combining MPI (for distributed memory)
and OpenMP (for shared memory) to achieve optimal parallelization.

4.1. How MPI + OpenMP Works in a Hybrid Model

 MPI (Message Passing Interface) for Inter-Node Communication

o Used to divide the computational workload across multiple nodes.

o Each node processes a portion of the problem and communicates with other nodes
as needed.

 OpenMP (Open Multi-Processing) for Intra-Node Parallelism

o Utilized within each node to exploit multi-core CPUs efficiently.

o Each MPI process runs multiple OpenMP threads, allowing computations within a
node to be parallelized using shared memory.

4.2. Example Scenario: Weather Forecasting Simulation

In a weather forecasting application, scientists use computational models that divide the Earth’s
atmosphere into a large grid:

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 The global domain is divided into subdomains, with each subdomain assigned to a separate
computing node.

 MPI handles communication between nodes, exchanging boundary data between

neighboring subdomains.

 OpenMP runs parallel computations within each node, using multiple threads to perform
calculations on grid points simultaneously.

This approach ensures that computations within a node are optimized using shared memory, while
inter-node communication is minimized using MPI, leading to efficient and scalable performance.

5. Conclusion
Hybrid memory models combining shared and distributed memory offer significant advantages for
large-scale HPC applications. By leveraging MPI for inter-node communication and OpenMP for intra-
node parallelism, hybrid models reduce communication overhead, improve resource utilization, and
enhance scalability. This approach is essential for solving complex scientific and engineering
problems in modern high-performance computing environments.

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