Introduction to Multi-core Architecture: Motivation for Concurrency in software, Parallel Computing Platforms, Parallel Computing in Microprocessors, Differentiating Multi-core Architectures from Hyper-Threading Technology, Multi-threading on Single-Core versus Multi-Core Platforms Understanding Performance, Amdahl’s Law, Growing Returns: Gustafson’s Law. System Overview of Threading:Defining Threads, System View of Threads, Threading above the Operating System, Threads inside the OS, Threads inside the Hardware, What Happens When a Thread Is Created, Application Programming Models and Threading, Virtual Environment: VMs and Platforms, Runtime Virtualization, System Virtualization

Fundamental Concepts of Parallel Programming: Designing for Threads, Task Decomposition, Data Decomposition, Data Flow Decomposition, Implications of Different Decompositions, Challenges You’ll Face, Parallel Programming Patterns, A Motivating Problem: Error Diffusion, Analysis of the Error Diffusion Algorithm, An Alternate Approach: Parallel Error Diffusion, Other Alternatives
Threading and Parallel Programming Constructs: Synchronization, Critical Sections, Deadlock, Synchronization Primitives, Semaphores, Locks, Condition Variables, Messages, Flow Control- based Concepts, Fence, Barrier, Implementation-dependent Threading Features. Threading APIs : Threading APls for Microsoft Windows, Win32/MFC Thread APls, Threading APls for Microsoft. NET Framework,Creating Threads, Managing Threads, Thread Pools, Thread Synchronization, POSIX Threads, Creating Threads, Managing Threads, Thread Synchronization, Signaling, Compilation and Linking

OpenMP: A Portable Solution for Threading: Challenges in Threading a Loop, Loop-carried Dependence, Data-race Conditions, Managing Shared and Private Data, Loop Scheduling and Portioning, Effective Use of Reductions, Minimizing Threading Overhead, Work-sharing Sections, Performance oriented Programming, Using Barrier and No wait, Interleaving Single-thread and Multi-thread Execution, Data Copy-in and Copy-out, Protecting Updates of Shared Variables, Intel Task queuing Extension to OpenMP, OpenMP Library Functions, OpenMP Environment Variables, Compilation, Debugging, performance.


Solutions to Common Parallel Programming Problems: Too Many Threads, Data Races, Deadlocks, and Live Locks, Deadlock, Heavily Contended Locks, Priority Inversion, Solutions for Heavily Contended Locks, Non-blocking Algorithms, ABA Problem, Cache Line Ping-ponging, Memory Reclamation Problem, Recommendations, Thread-safe Functions and Libraries, Memory Issues, Bandwidth, Working in the Cache, Memory Contention, Cache-related Issues, False Sharing, Memory Consistency, Current IA-32 Architecture, Itanium Architecture, High-level Languages, Avoiding Pipeline Stalls on IA-32,Data Organization for High Performance

To understand the recent trends in the field of Computer Architecture and identify performance related parameters

To appreciate the need for parallel processing and to expose the students to the problems related to multiprocessing

To understand the different types of multicore architectures

To understand the concepts of multi-threading and OPENMP

Identify the limitations of ILP and the need for multi-core architectures.
Solve the issues related to multiprocessing and suggest solutions.
Point out the salient features of different multi-core architectures and how they exploit parallelism.
How to program multicore processors

Patrick Stakem, Multicore Computer Architectures, xxxx , ISBN-13: 978-1520241371

Shameem Akhter and Jason Roberts, Multicore Programming, Increased Performance through Software Multi-threading, Intel Press

Tracey Hughes Cameron Hughes, Professional Multicore Programming Design and Implementation for C++ Developers, Worx Publiction

Darryl Gove, Multicore Application Programming for Windows, Linux, and Oracle Solaris, Pearson