Evaluating a high-level parallel language (GpH) for computational GRIDs

Al Zain, A.D., Trinder, P.W. , Michaelson, G.J. and Loidl, H.-W. (2008) Evaluating a high-level parallel language (GpH) for computational GRIDs. IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems, 19(2), pp. 219-233. (doi: 10.1109/TPDS.2007.70728)

Abstract

Computational GRIDs potentially offer low-cost, readily available, and large-scale high-performance platforms. For the parallel execution of programs, however, computational GRIDs pose serious challenges: they are heterogeneous and have hierarchical and often shared interconnects, with high and variable latencies between clusters. This paper investigates whether a programming language with high-level parallel coordination and a distributed shared memory (DSM) model can deliver good and scalable performance on a range of computational GRID configurations. The high-level language Glasgow parallel Haskell (GpH) abstracts over the architectural complexities of the computational GRID, and we have developed GRID-GUM2, a sophisticated grid-specific implementation of GpH, to produce the first high-level DSM parallel language implementation for computational Grids. We report a systematic performance evaluation of GRID-GUM2 on combinations of high/low and homogeneous/heterogeneous computational GRIDS. We measure the performance of a small set of kernel parallel programs representing a variety of application areas, two parallel paradigms, and ranges of communication degree and parallel irregularity. We investigate GRID-GUM2's performance scalability on medium-scale heterogeneous and high-latency computational GRIDs and analyze the performance with respect to the program characteristics of communication frequency and degree of irregular parallelism.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Trinder, Professor Phil
• Authors: Al Zain, A.D., Trinder, P.W., Michaelson, G.J., and Loidl, H.-W.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science
• Journal Name: IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems
• ISSN: 1045-9219