Parallelism through Digital Circuit Design

Abstract. Two ways to exploit chips with a very large number of transistors are multicore processors and programmable logic chips. Some data parallel algorithms can be executed efficiently on ordinary parallel computers, including multicores. A class of data parallel algorithms is identified which have characteristics that make implementation on multiprocessors inefficient, but they are well suited for direct design as digital circuits. This leads to a programming model called circuit parallelism. The characteristics of circuit parallel algorithms are discussed, and a prototype system for supporting them is described. Keywords. circuit parallelism, data parallelism, FPGA

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: DAGSTUHL
• Authors: John O'Donnell
• Keywords: Circuit Parallelism, DAGSTUHL 2007, Data Parallel Algorithms, Parallel Algorithms, Software Engineering