Representatives from the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Center (EPCC) visited the University of Southampton today to deliver the first of a three day training course in OpenMP parallel programming. Dr Mark Bull presented the theory of multi-threaded and shared memory programming as part of the NGCM Advanced Computational Methods II FEEG6003 module. Training access to the the UK’s national supercomputer ARCHER has been provided to all participants for the duration of the course as a platform to work through the exercises.
Multi-thread programs are susceptible to bugs because the task order and thread synchronisation is the responsibility of the user. The aims of this course are to show users how to correctly structure multi-threaded programs with OpenMP such that these bugs are avoided. Optimisation techniques are also demonstrated. All material is available from the ARCHER website and is creative commons licensed.
This is the first of a two-part course on parallel programming, the second of which begins in April and will cover use of the ‘Message Passing Interface’ (MPI). Both sections of the course form part of the formal teaching of FEEG6003, but were also made available to students and academics free of charge. Keep track of the CMG events page for future events and seminars.
Posted by Paul Chambers