The effects of communication overhead on the speedup of parallel 3-D finite element applications

Abstract

The use of parallel processors for implementing the finite element method has made feasible the analyses of large applications, especially three-dimensional applications. The speedup, however, is limited by the interprocessor communication requirements. The authors analyze the effects of interprocessor communications on the resultant speedup of the parallel execution of regular three-dimensional finite element applications. They derive the speedup expressions for the hypercube and mesh topologies. These expressions can be used to analyze the results of different partitioning and mapping strategies.<>