Past and current research in computer performance analysis has focused primarily on dedicated parallel machines. However, future applications in the area of high-performance computing will not only use individual parallel systems but a large set of networked resources. This scenario of computational and data Grids is attracting a great deal of attention from both computer and computational scientists. In addition to the inherent complexity of parallel machines, the sharing and transparency of the available resources introduces new challenges on performance analysis, techniques, and systems. In order to meet those challenges, a multi-disciplinary approach to the multi-faceted problems of performance is required. New degrees of freedom will come into play with a direct impact on the performance of Grid computing, including wide-area network performance, quality-of-service (QoS), heterogeneity, and middleware systems, to mention only a few.

Past and current research in computer performance analysis has focused primarily on dedicated parallel machines. However, future applications in the area of high-performance computing will not only use individual parallel systems but a large set of networked resources. This scenario of computational and data Grids is attracting a great deal of attention from both computer and computational scientists. In addition to the inherent complexity of parallel machines, the sharing and transparency of the available resources introduces new challenges on performance analysis, techniques, and systems. In order to meet those challenges, a multi-disciplinary approach to the multi-faceted problems of performance is required. New degrees of freedom will come into play with a direct impact on the performance of Grid computing, including wide-area network performance, quality-of-service (QoS), heterogeneity, and middleware systems, to mention only a few.

Offers a comprehensive, tutorial-style, hands-on, introductory and intermediate-level treatment of all the essential ingredients for achieving high performance in numerical computations on modern computers. The authors explain computer architectures, data traffic, and issues related to performance of serial and parallel code optimization exemplified by actual programs written for algorithms of wide interest. The unique hands-on style is achieved by extensive case studies using realistic computational problems. The performance gain obtained by applying the techniques described in this book can be very significant. The book bridges the gap between the literature in system architecture, the one in numerical methods and the occasional descriptions of optimization topics in computer vendors' literature. It also allows readers to better judge the suitability of certain computer architecture to their computational requirements. In contrast to standard textbooks on computer architecture and on programming techniques the book treats these topics together at the level necessary for writing high-performance programs. The book facilitates easy access to these topics for computational scientists and engineers mainly interested in practical issues related to efficient code development.