Spiraling Parallel Processing Concepts Through the Undergraduate Curriculum

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This department is expanding its efforts to introduce undergraduates to parallel processing concepts in a gradual and nonthreatening manner. Parallel processing is discussed for the first time in the first-year Data Structures class, in which lectures and several group activities are devoted to parallel sorting and a lab assignment involving sorting in parallel is given. Appropriate parallel computing topics are also discussed within the Computer Organization Principles of Language Design II, Operating Systems, and Analysis of Algorithms classes. This plan culminates with the Parallel Computing class that is devoted to parallel computing topics. The extended introduction to parallel processing enhances the earlier courses and provides a strong foundation for the Parallel Computing course. Four Sun workstations and 16 PCs are being installed along with software multiprocessor simulators for Unix-based workstation and PC environments. When combined with the Computer Science Department's existing multiprocessor file server and 16 transputers, actual or simulated versions of most of the important multiprocessor parallel architectures are available to students.