A Real-Time Parallel Algorithm Animation System

Abstract

Algorithm animation is a visualization method used to enhance understanding of the functioning of an algorithm or program. Visualization is used for many purposes, including education, algorithm research, performance analysis, and program debugging. This research applies algorithm animation techniques to programs developed for parallel architectures, with specific emphasis on the Intel iPSC/2 hypercube. Current, investigations focus in two different areas: performance data display and animations of specific algorithms or classes of algorithms. This research builds on these efforts to provide a system that is able to both display performance data from parallel programs and support the creation of animations for specific algorithms. There are three goals for this visualization system. Data should be displayed as it is generated. The inteiface to the target program should be transparent, allowing the animation of existing programs. The system must be flexible enough to animate any algorithm. The resulting system incorporates, integrates and extends two systems: the AFIT Algorithm Animation Research Facility (AAARF) and the Parallel Resource Analysis Software Environment (PRASE). Since performance data is an essential part of analyzing any parallel program, multiple views of the performance data are provided as an elementary part of the system. In addition to the animation system, a method for developing the animations is discussed. This method is arpplicable to animating any type of program, sequential or parallel. Whilc: both P-time and NP-ttme algorithms can potentially benefit from using visualization techniques, the set of NP .complete problems provides fertile ground for developing parallel atpplications. The methods discussed in this paper were used to animate a parallel implementation of a general Set Covering Problem (SCP).