LogP: Towards a Realistic Model of Parallel Computation

A vast body of theoretical research has focused either on overly simplistic models of parallel computation, notably the PRAM, or overly specific models that have few representatives in the real world. Both kinds of models encourage exploitation of formal loopholes, rather than rewarding development of techniques that yield performance across a range of current and future parallel machines. This paper offers a new parallel machine model, called LogP, that reflects the critical technology trends underlying parallel computers. It is intended to serve as a basis for developing fast, portable parallel algorithms and to offer guidelines to machine designers. Such a model must strike a balance between detail and simplicity in order to reveal important bottlenecks without making analysis of interesting problems intractable. The model is based on four parameters that specify abstractly the computing bandwidth, the communication bandwidth, the communication delay, and the efficiency of coupl...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1993
• Where: PPOPP
• Authors: David E. Culler, Richard M. Karp, David A. Patterson, Abhijit Sahay, Klaus E. Schauser, Eunice E. Santos, Ramesh Subramonian, Thorsten von Eicken
• Keywords: Distributed And Parallel Computing, Parallel Machine, Parallel Machine Model, Portable Parallel Algorithms, PPOPP 1993