Parallel and Distributed Computing: A Survey of Models, Paradigms and Approaches

An all-inclusive survey of the fundamentals of parallel and distributed computing.

The use of parallel and distributed computing has increased dramatically over the past few years, giving rise to a variety of projects, implementations, and buzzwords surrounding the subject. Although the areas of parallel and distributed computing have traditionally evolved separately, these models have overlapping goals and characteristics.

Parallel and Distributed Computing surveys the models and paradigms in this converging area of parallel and distributed computing and considers the diverse approaches within a common text. Covering a comprehensive set of models and paradigms, the material also skims lightly over more specific details and serves as both an introduction and a survey. Novice readers will be able to quickly grasp a balanced overview with the review of central concepts, problems, and ideas, while the more experienced researcher will appreciate the specific comparisons between models, the coherency of the parallel and distributed computing field, and the discussion of less well-known proposals. Other topics covered include:

• Data parallelism
• Shared-memory programming
• Message passing
• Client/server computing
• Code mobility
• Coordination, object-oriented, high-level, and abstract models
• And much more

Parallel and Distributed Computing is a perfect tool for students and can be used as a foundation for parallel and distributed computing courses. Application developers will find this book helpful to get an overview before choosing a particular programming style to study in depth, and researchers and programmers will appreciate the wealth of information concerning the various areas of parallel and distributed computing.

CLAUDIA LEOPOLD, PhD, received her doctorate from Humboldt-Universitat in Berlin and is now in the Computer Science Department at Friedrich-Schiller-Universitat in Jena, Germany. She has published several significant papers in the field of parallel and distributed computing.