An Introduction to High-Performance Scientific

by Lloyd D. Fosdick, Elizabeth R. Jessup,Carolyn J.C. Schauble, andGitta Domik760 pages$55MIT PressCambridge, Mass.1996ISBN 0-262-06181-3Lloyd Fosdick started collecting the materialfor this textbook in 1985, when he created acourse in parallel computing for undergradu-ate and graduate students at the University ofColorado in Boulder. One could say that thisbook was 10 years in the making. As we willsee, this is a rather mixed blessing.The book is designed to support a coursefor upper-division undergraduate studentsin engineering and science (and is definitelynot intended for computer science majors).To introduce non-computer scientiststo high-performance computing, Parts Ithrough III provide extended backgroundmaterial. Part I discusses numerical analysis,IEEE arithmetic, Unix, and Fortran. PartII presents three tools for scientific com-puting: Matlab, IDL (Interactive Data Lan-guage), and AVS (Application VisualizationSystem). Part III summarizes the basicissues in scientific visualization. These threeparts use a hands-on approach and are filledwith exercises designed for a laboratoryenvironment.Parts IV (Architectures) and V (Applica-tions) present high-performance comput-ing. Part IV starts by covering basic issuesin computer performance, including bench-marks and the effects of optimizing compil-ers. It then presents basic descriptions andintroduces the programming issues for threehigh-performance computer architectures:vector computers; distributed-memory mul-tiple-instruction, multiple-data computers;and single-instruction, multiple-data com-puters. Part V discusses three interdiscipli-nary applications of high-performance com-puters in more depth: molecular dynamics,advection, and computerized tomography.What is most impressive about this bookis how well it is rooted in years of teachingexperience. The introduction suggests indetail how instructors can use the book’smaterial in a one-year or a two-semestercourse. An additional set of materials are alsoavailable from an anonymous FTP site (