Introduction to Parallel Computing (2nd Edition) (Hardcover)

by Ananth Grama (Author), George Karypis (Author), Vipin Kumar (Author), Anshul Gupta (Author)
Key Phrases: search overhead factor, exploratory decomposition, asymptotic isoefficiency function, Parallel Programming Platforms, Dense Matrix Algorithms, Principles of Parallel Algorithm Design (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
This book provides a basic, in-depth look at techniques for the design and analysis of parallel algorithms and for programming them on commercially available parallel platforms. Principles of parallel algorithms design and different parallel programming models are both discussed, with extensive coverage of MPI, POSIX threads, and Open MP. This second edition includes two new chapters on the principles of parallel programming and programming paradigms, as well as new information on portability. For programmers wanting to gain proficiency in all aspects of parallel programming.

From the Back Cover
This book provides a basic, in-depth look at techniques for the design and analysis of parallel algorithms and for programming them on commercially available parallel platforms. Principles of parallel algorithms design and different parallel programming models are both discussed, with extensive coverage of MPI, POSIX threads, and Open MP. This second edition includes two new chapters on the principles of parallel programming and programming paradigms, as well as new information on portability. For programmers wanting to gain proficiency in all aspects of parallel programming.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 656 pages
• Publisher: Addison Wesley; 2 edition (January 26, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201648652
• ISBN-13: 978-0201648652
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #312,282 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Worst text book ever written.., December 1, 2005

By	Panda Bear - See all my reviews

This book is extremely poorly written. The authors glaze over complex equations and magically come up with answers that don't make any sense. For example, to anyone having taken a prior architecture course the author's are completely wrong in the majority of cache performance analysis done early on in the book. Problems associated with that topic force the reader to dumb-down quite a bit to achieve their "expected" answer.

The user is left in most cases to derive the bizarre math that is involved through the authors' hand-waiving.
One of my personal favorites is from a formula derivation given on page 340, the sequence follows from the text as:

n^2=Ktwnp,
n=Ktwp,
n^2=K^2tw^2p^2, <--what, did I miss something here?
W=K^2tw^2p^2,

On top of that there are numerous typos in the sparse visual examples that do exist. Thus it makes it even more confounding to read through.

If you are evaluating the text for a possible parallel computing course. Don't waste your time or money with this text, your students will thank you. If you are student looking to take a class that uses this text...dropping a brick on your foot might be more enjoyable. If you think I'm a disgruntled student trying to seek revenge, I'm not. I did fine in the course, and I just want to make sure that no one else gets blind-sided by the non-sensical garbage that is this text. If there was a negative rating...this would be below 1 star.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Better read Journals than this book, November 28, 2005

By	M. Lutfi "Linux Newbie" (Santa Rosa, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I bought the book a few months ago as textbook for my semester class in high performance computing. After reading the first 3 chapters I realized that this book is a waste. The examples are only solved partially, a lot of jargons (they should have put the terminology in separate table, maybe).

I was hoping, by reading the book I'd learn something essential and got the basic philosophy of high-performance computing/parallel processing. Instead, I got more confused than before reading it! (I used to be real-time software programmer, so the field is not totally new to me). The authors tried to put everything in this small 633-pages book.

Even my professor said it is useless to read the book and refer us to other papers [Robertazzi's papers], and yes, these IEEE/ACM papers are much clearly explained and understood! I also found that a website is much better explaining the concept. Another book is also I guess better: "Fundamentals of Parallel Processing" by Harry F. Jordan and Gita Alaghband.

Don't waste your money on this book.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Too many mistakes., February 19, 2006

By	Erik R. Knowles "EK" (Evergreen, CO) - See all my reviews

I agree with the other reviewers who have said that this book is sloppy. There are just far too many mistakes for a 2nd edition book; very discouraging in an Addison-Wesley print.

The content is OK, and fairly thorough, but as another reviewer noted, there's considerable handwaving going on in some of the explanations.

Bottom line: a cleaned-up 3rd edition could be a very good textbook. Too bad I'm stuck with the 2nd edition :(