There is a software gap between hardware potential and the performance that can be attained using today ’ s software parallel program development tools. The tools need manual intervention by the programmer to parallelize the code. This book is intended to give the programmer the techniques necessary to explore parallelism in algorithms, serial as well as iterative. Parallel computing is now moving from the realm of specialized expensive systems available to few select groups to cover almost every computing system in use today. We can fi nd parallel computers in our laptops, desktops, and embedded in our smart phones. The applications and algorithms targeted to parallel computers were traditionally confi ned to weather prediction, wind tunnel simulations, computational biology, and signal processing. Nowadays, just about any application that runs on a computer will encounter the parallel processors now available in almost every system.

There is a software gap between the hardware potential and the performance that can be attained using today's software parallel program development tools. The tools need manual intervention by the programmer to parallelize the code. Programming a parallel computer requires closely studying the target algorithm or application, more so than in the traditional sequential programming we have all learned. The programmer must be aware of the communication and data dependencies of the algorithm or application. This book provides the techniques to explore the possible ways to program a parallel computer for a given application.