Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!convex!texsun!newstop!sun-barr!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!emory!hubcap!dfk
From: dfk@grad13.cs.duke.edu (David F. Kotz)
Newsgroups: comp.parallel
Subject: Re: SIMD vs MIMD programming (was Acceptable efficiency factors)
Summary: architecture can't be ignored
Message-ID: <9661@hubcap.clemson.edu>
Date: 12 Jul 90 20:32:24 GMT
Sender: fpst@hubcap.clemson.edu
Followup-To: comp.parallel
Lines: 31
Approved: parallel@hubcap.clemson.edu

In article <9633@hubcap.clemson.edu>, sjl@myrias.com (Stuart Lomas) writes:
> Most MIMD machines are indeed dificult to program.
...
> Myrias machines are programmed in standard Fortran 77.
And hence it is also difficult to program  ;-)

...
> Programs on a Myrias machine run deterministicly, and the machine
> architecture can be ignored except for efficiency considerations. 
What is difficult about programming many MIMD (or SIMD) systems is to
make an *efficient* program (the original point of this thread of
discussion).  Just getting your program to run is not always that
hard, although of course some systems/languages are easier than others
in this respect. To make an efficient program, unfortunately, one must
usually pay attention to architectural details. 

[This is not to slight SPS, since it is possible your system provides
a very convenient interface for using simple parallelism, which may be
enough for many users/applications. This in itself is an important
feature. ]

> Stuart Lomas				sjl@myrias.com or uunet!myrias!sjl
> Myrias Research Corporation		phone: +1 403 428 1616
> #900 10611 98 Ave, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T5K 2P7

David Kotz

Department of Computer Science, Duke University, Durham, NC 27706 USA
ARPA:	dfk@cs.duke.edu
CSNET:	dfk@duke        
UUCP:	decvax!duke!dfk