A Laboratory for Parallel Computing, with Particular Appliation to Computer Graphics

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Parallel processing is now a significant component of large computation, and it will become increasingly so in the future. This project is directed at giving students a hands-on environment in which they can grasp the issues involved with the several models for parallel computation, via the use of transputer hardware. These issues will be studied both via the language OCCAM and through use of a parallel-C compiler.The plan is to introduce one new course devoted to parallelism per se, a second new course devoted to development and analysis of parallel algorithms, and a third new course--in computer graphics, but taking full advantage of the parallel computing facilities. This latter course will provide applications of the power of parallelism. Equally as important, it will resolve the computational near-impasse that students sometimes encounter when trying to apply techniques of three-dimensional graphics and image processing.It is expected that the impact of this facility will not be restricted to these new courses, but will also influence in varying degrees nine existing upper- division courses.