CISC 372 Parallel Programming
Instructor: David Saunders, see home page for office hours, office location, email addr, phone #'s, etc.
Teaching Assistant: Guangmeng Meng, meng@cis.udel.edu
Office Hours:
3:00-5:00pm Wednesdays in 51 E. Main St (basement).
Peter S. Pacheco, Parallel Programming with MPI, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 1997.
We will write parallel programs using MPI (Message Passing Interface). MPI is a library of routines that allows programs running in parallel to talk to each other, and send data back and forth. These programs will be compiled and executed on a dedicated network of DEC alpha workstations on the CIS network. You must obtain an account on this cluster as soon as possible. Go to htto://www.eecis.udel.edu and click on "Apply for Account".
An effective and usually quick way to resolve ambiguities and answer questions on homework and programming assignments is via email. Questions sent to saunders@cis.udel.edu will be posted anonymously with an answer via email to the entire class. Also, if you wish, you can send your comment or query to the entire class via the course mailing list. In this case one or more classmates as well as the instructor may offer an answer or expand the discussion. Free speech!
Labs must be given to the instructor by the start of class on the due date, in order to have no points deducted for lateness. The due dates are to be taken seriously and you should not expect them to be extended. The pace of work is implicit in the due dates and necessary if you expect to finish by the end of the semester. Homeworks to be graded should be turned in at the start of class on the specified due date. NO late programs or homeworks will be accepted FOR FULL CREDIT without discussion with me prior to the due date. If you can not reach me, leave a message on my voicemail. All other assignments not delivered by the due date are considered late.
My philosophy on late assignments is: (1) Everyone should try their best to complete all assignments by the specified due date. (2) People who work conscientiously to make the deadlines should be rewarded for their promptness and sacrifice of sleep. Thus, allowing others to hand in late assignments without some penalty is not fair to these people. However, there are various circumstances that may prevent you from completing an assignment by the due date. Allowing no late assignments would not give you much incentive to continue to work on the assignment, which is a major source of learning in this course. Thus, I believe late assignments are better than no assignment.
Late assignments will be penalized 10% off the total possible points if turned in within the first 24-hour period after the specified due date and time, and 10% per 24-hour period (or fraction of a day) (including weekends) after that time, up to a week after the due date. Late assignments will be accepted with penalty up to one week after the due date. Assignments submitted at any later time without an approved excuse will not be accepted. It is up to you to determine the version of your assignment to be graded. You must weigh the late penalty against the completeness of your assignment.
If you are dissatisfied with a grade on a homework, programming assignment, or exam, you should consult the instructor directly within a week of the day the graded assignment was returned to you. No regrade requests will be considered after this week period.
You are permitted to consult orally with other students and professors on any conceptual problems or for debugging assistance on all programming assignments. Any evidence of collaboration other than this kind will be handled as stated in the Official Student Handbook of the University of Delaware. All writing of text and code must be your own, without unattributed use of or paraphrase of the work of classmates or other people. If you are in doubt regarding the requirements, please consult with me before you complete any requirement of this course.