skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Parallel algorithms with processor failures and delays. Technical report

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:5796465

The authors study efficient deterministic parallel algorithms on two models: restartable fail-stop CRCW PRAMs and strongly asynchronous PRAMs. In the first model, synchronous processors are subject to arbitrary stop failures and restarts determined by an on-line adversary and involving loss of private but not shared memory; the complexity measures are completed work (where processors are charged for completed fixed-size update cycles) and overhead ratio (completed work amortized over necessary work and failure). In the second model, the result of the computation is a serialization of the actions of the processors determined by an on-line adversary; the complexity measure is total work (number of steps taken by all processors). Despite their differences the two models share key algorithmic techniques. They present new algorithms for the Write-All problem (in which P processors write ones into an array of size N) for these two models. These algorithms can be used to implement a simulation strategy for any N processor PRAM on a restartable fail-stop P processor CRCW PRAM such that it guarantees a terminating execution of each simulated N processor step, with O(log sq N) overhead ratio.

Research Organization:
Brown Univ., Providence, RI (United States). Dept. of Computer Science
OSTI ID:
5796465
Report Number(s):
AD-A-242764/9/XAB; CS-91-54; CNN: N00014-91-J-1613; NSF-IRI-8617344
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English