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Past Announcements (Fall 2004)

• Homework 4 is out! Note the due date (Nov 11)! Also additional notes have been posted on the Web.
• Using more than 4 processors If you plan to run your program on more than 4 processors make sure that .bsptcphosts file has been updated from the original default configuration. Before you do a bsplibd -all on the new configuration, make sure that you have already stopped the previous daemon. Sample .bsptcphosts file.
  1. phw3.ps Typo. In section 3.3, the line(s) just before section 3.4. I have ./piseq 12500000. It should have been ./pipar 12500000
  2. HW3, P1 clarification Here are some notations used in HW3, Problem 1 (the programming part) and what they mean.
     1. PiOne A function. Single iteration of the code that you need to implement. It approximates pi using a single experiment; value unreliable.
     2. PiTwo A function. Calls PiOne n times. It approximates pi using n calls to PiOne; value reliable.
     3. piseq A sequential program (no bsp code) with its main() function. Complete with a makefile to compile it. Implements PiOne and PiTwo and prints an approximation of pi. It reads number of iterations from command line. There is no need to have a source file piseq.c. If you wish you might only ask the compiler to generate the executable into piseq by doing ... -o piseq. This is deliverable 1 of section 3.7
     4. pipar A parallel program (with bsp code) with its main(), bsp_begin functions. Complete with a makefile to compile it. Implements PiOne and PiTwo and prints an approximation of pi. It reads number of iterations PER PROCESSOR from command line, i.e. it reads n/p not n! Read the line of section 3.3 (but take into consideration the typo at the top of this section) about how the program behaves and what it should print. There is no need to have a source file pipar.c. If you wish you might only ask the compiler to generate the executable into pipar by doing ... -o pipar. This is deliverable 2 of section 3.7
     5. pipar(int runsperproc) An ANSI C function. Note that deliverable 2 requires a program of the same name. Here we ask for a function! It is deliverable number 3. Just a function that has the functionality of deliverable 2, except that I am going to link it with my own code to see how it behaves. My own code will do the bsp_begin and bsp_end, your code should implement in essence PiOne and PiTwo without the additional overhad of deliverable 2. This is deliverable 3 of section 3.7
  3. HW2, P1 results have been mailed (Tue Oct 19@noon). If you did not receive an email contact the intructor. Benchmarks.
  4. Web-page availability Access to the course web-page might be limited today Wednesday and perhaps tomorrow due to maintenance.
  5. sftp,scp, etc In order to transfer files to a remote machine one can use secure ftp called sftp (psftp for putty) or secure copy scp (pscp for putty). If the user name of the client and server machines do not coincide, write down explicitly the login name of the destination machine eg. scp file1 user0@pcc16.njit.edu:/home/user0/file2 will copy local file file1 to pcc16 under account user0 in directory /home/user0 under a new name file2. A password will be requested for user0 at pcc16.
  6. Homework 2 Programming and Installation comments Follow the guidelines of the files in the last link of the protected area FAITHFULLY. This means DO NOT JUMP STEPS, DO NOT IMPROVISE unless you are absolutley certain of what you are doing. If the instructions ask you to type "the" you type "the", neither "The" nor "THE".
  7. Typo HW2, Problem 5 In time "O(1)" should read in time "O(lgn)". You can't merge in constant time in this problem.
  8. Ssh/sftp(2)Those who use putty, check the web-page http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/ for other related programs for ftp etc (psftp).
  9. Ssh/sftpThe secure shell client available through NJIT also has ftp capabilities. Go to Window and select New File Transfer. Before you do this, however, check the directory /home/user0 per the intructions of the last section of the Handout for Problem 1, HW2.
  10. Clarification/Correction Problem 1, HW2. Check the handout section (Sun 09/26).
  11. HW2 typo Section 4, first line, it says "bsp0". It was meant to be "user0", the example account used in other parts of the document.
  12. Cluster connectivity. You can connect to the base machine of the cluster from an NJIT machine only. This can be an AFS machine, or if you are running VPN (that masquerades your external machine as if it is an NJIT machine) then and only then can you connect from the outside. The site telecom.njit.edu has a VPN client for download.
  13. Past semesters Click here.