Topic 12: Theory and algorithms for parallel computation

Abstract

Parallelism permeates all levels of current computing systems, from single CPU machines, to large server farms, to geographically dispersed "volunteers" who collaborate over the Internet. The effective use of parallelism depends crucially on the availability of faithful, yet tractable, models of computation for algorithm design and analysis, and on efficient strategies for solving key computational problems on prominent classes of computing platforms. No less important are good models of the way the different components/subsystems of a platform are interconnected. With the development of new genres of computing platforms, such as multicore parallel machines, desktop grids, clouds, and hybrid GPU/CPUbased systems, new models and paradigms are needed that will allow parallel programming to advance into mainstream computing. Topic 12 focuses on contributions providing new results on foundational issues regarding parallelism in computing, and/or proposing improved approaches to the solution of specific algorithmic problems. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.