Parallelism is a fundamental concept which impacts literally every area of Computer Science. The conjoined CSE 160/CSE 260 courses will provide an introductory survey of parallel computation, focusing on parallel programs, parallel machines, and parallel computing on networked platforms. The information in the courses will provide you with an overview of the issues and problems in high-performance computing.
The prerequisites for 160 are undergraduate standing and the prerequisites for 260 are graduate standing. There will be different expectations for students in 160 and 260. The text for everyone is Parallel Programming by Wilkinson and Allen. The text will be available at the bookstore at the beginning of April. The lectures will be based on the text and selected research papers.
There will be 3 programming projects. Programs will be both done individually and in groups. The programming projects will count for 40% of your grade. Late programs will be docked 5% for every day after they are due.
There will be a midterm to test the concepts in the course. The material for the midterm will be mostly out of the textbook. The midterm will count for 30% of your grade.
There will be a final exam to test knowledge of topics of current interest and the material from the book. The non-text material for the final will be largely from class web sources and/or research papers. The final will count for 30% of your grade.
There will be 3 programming projects. Programs will be both done individually and in groups. The programming projects will count for 40% of your grade. Late programs will be docked 5% for every day after they are due.
There will be a midterm to test the concepts in the course. The material for the midterm will be mostly out of the textbook. The midterm will count for 30% of your grade.
You will contribute to the presentation of a topic of current interest in the last half of the quarter. You will give a talk and generate a web report with study questions for the class. More details on the web report and presentation will be forthcoming. The presentation will count for 30\% of your grade.
The course web page is http://www-cse.ucsd.edu/classes/sp99/cse160. You are responsible for keeping up with class assignments by checking the web page regularly. All class assignments will be available on the web.
Some of the assignments in the course will be individual and some will be done in groups. In either case, you or your group may talk with other students or groups about the programs, but the code you develop and turn in must be your own. Plagarized work will be given a 0.
The Parallel Computation Laboratory has a weekly seminar on some topic which pertains to parallel computation. The talks, given by graduate students, faculty, SDSC researchers and visitors, are open to all. Check the class web page for details. The seminar will be held on Mondays from 10-11. This is a good way to learn more about parallel computation.