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Assessing gains from parallel computation on a supercomputer

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  • Lilia Maliar

    (Stanford University)

Abstract

We assess gains from parallel computation on Backlight supercomputer. The information transfers are expensive. We find that to make parallel computation efficient, a task per core must be sufficiently large, ranging from few seconds to one minute depending on the number of cores employed. For small problems, the shared memory programming (OpenMP) and a hybrid of shared and distributive memory programming (OpenMP&MPI) leads to a higher efficiency of parallelization than the distributive memory programming (MPI) alone.

Suggested Citation

  • Lilia Maliar, 2015. "Assessing gains from parallel computation on a supercomputer," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 35(1), pages 159-167.
  • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-14-00773
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    Cited by:

    1. Judd, Kenneth L. & Maliar, Lilia & Maliar, Serguei & Valero, Rafael, 2014. "Smolyak method for solving dynamic economic models: Lagrange interpolation, anisotropic grid and adaptive domain," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 92-123.
    2. John Gibson & James P Henson, 2016. "Getting the most from MATLAB: ditching canned routines and embracing coder," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 36(4), pages 2519-2525.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Parallel Computation; Information transfers; Speedup; Supercomputers; OpenMP; MPI; Blacklight;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C0 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - General
    • C6 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling

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