Illinois professor co-authors groundbreaking, hands-on approach for teaching programming of massively parallel processors

University of Illinois professor Wen-mei Hwu has co-authored an important new textbook that breaks down the complexities of parallel programming and the GPU architecture to enable programmers to address the critical challenges of massive parallelism.

The break-through text, Programming Massively Parallel Processors: A Hands-on Approach, has been co-authored by Wen-Mei Hwu, principal investigator of Illinois’ CUDA Center of Excellence, and David Kirk, an NVIDIA Fellow and former Chief Scientist.

The break-through text, Programming Massively Parallel Processors: A Hands-on Approach, was co-authored by Hwu, principal investigator of Illinois’ CUDA Center of Excellence, and David Kirk, an NVIDIA Fellow and former Chief Scientist.

According to Hwu, the book was written to provide programmers at all levels and across all scientific disciplines with the ability to “think parallel” and optimize the GPU architecture with step-by-step instruction on how to:

• Effectively program massively parallel processors using real-world case studies and actual software development tools (CUDA, NVIDIA’s software development tool for masssively parallel environments, and OpenCL, and open-source computing language).

• Develop computational thinking techniques that enable users to address problems that are amenable to high-performance parallel computing.

• Achieve both high performance and high reliability using both CUDA and OpenCL.

The text was developed from one of the nation’s first university courses to offer a comprehensive approach to massively parallel programming. Originally co-taught by the authors at Illinois in 2007, the course materials have since been tested and refined for presentation in venues and media around the world. Various online modules have been adopted into the curricula at over 100 universities around the world.

The book is one of the first major publications by the CUDA Centers of Excellence worldwide, which are dedicated to providing global access to education in massively parallel processing. While Illinois hosts the original CUDA Center, others are hosted at the universities of Utah, Harvard, and Tennessee in the USA; the University of Cambridge in the UK; National Taiwan University; and in China, Tsinghua University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Programming Massively Parallel Processors: A Hands-on Approach was published by Morgan Kaufmann, an imprint of Elsevier. For sample chapters, ancillary teaching materials, related titles, author information, or to buy a copy or request a review copy, please visit here. The book is also available through Amazon.com, and additional information is available from NVIDIA.

About the Authors

The authors, the former chief scientist of NVIDIA, and an eminent University of Illinois professor of electrical and computer engineering, represent both technology development and teaching – the perfect team to make parallel programming understandable, usable, and effective for both new and advanced programmers.

• Wen-mei Hwu is the Walter J. ("Jerry") Sanders III-Advanced Micro Devices Endowed Chair in Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois Coordinated Science Laboratory. His IMPACT Research Group is well known for development of the IMPACT Compiler and other novel computing technologies now widely used in industry and academic research. He is a leader of many parallel computing research and teaching initiatives at the University of Illinois, which are aligned through Parallel@Illinois. (www.Parallel.Illinois.edu). He is director of the world's first NVIDIA CUDA Center of Excellence, co-director of the Intel-Microsoft-funded Universal Parallel Computing Research Center (UPCRC), and Co-PI for hardware of the NSF Petascale Computer Project, “Blue Waters” in collaboration with IBM. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and ACM and author of 200+ peer-reviewed articles.

• David Kirk is a Fellow and former Chief Scientist of NVIDIA. He led the development of graphics technology for many popular consumer entertainment platforms and holds 50+ patents and patent applications relating to graphics design. David has published 50+ articles on graphics technology and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2006. In 2002, he was awarded the SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics Achievement Award for his role in bringing high-performance computer graphics systems to the mass market.

Praise for Programming Massively Parallel Processors

"For those interested in the GPU path to parallel enlightenment, this new book from David Kirk and Wen-mei Hwu is a godsend. . . . a valuable addition to the recently reinvigorated parallel computing literature." -- David Patterson, Pardee Professor of Computer Science, University of California-Berkeley

". . . the most comprehensive and authoritative introduction to GPU computing yet. David Kirk and Wen-mei Hwu are the pioneers in this increasingly important field, and their insights are invaluable and fascinating. . . . the standard reference for years to come." -- Hanspeter Pfister, Gordon McKay Professor of the Practice of Computer Science, Harvard University

"Written by two teaching pioneers, this book is the definitive practical reference on programming massively parallel processors—a true technological gold mine. . . .cutting-edge, yet very readable. . . . most rewarding for students, engineers and scientists interested in supercharging computational resources to solve today's and tomorrow's hardest problems." -- Nicolas Pinto, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology