The Journal of Parallel Algorithms and Applications: Special Issue on Parallel and Distributed Algorithms

The Journal of Parallel Algorithms and Applications publishes original quality research throughout various areas, including Parallel and Distributed Algorithms. The scope of the journal includes novel applications as well as fundamental contributions to the field. This Special Issue of The Journal of Parallel Algorithms and Applications contains selected articles presented at The International Multi-Conference in Computer Science and Computer Engineering; title of track: The 2003 International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Processing Techniques and Applications (PDPTA 2003; June 23–26, 2003, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA). The main objective of the International Multi-Conference in Computer Science and Computer Engineering series is to create an international scientific forum for presentation and discussion of current research topics of Computer Science and Engineering. The six papers appearing in this special issue provide a variety and wealth of contributions and approaches in the field: In this special issue, Schimmler M., Schmidt B. and Lang H.W. present the design of a new bit-serial floating-point unit (FPU), which has been developed for the processors of the Instruction Systolic Array parallel computer model. The bit-serial approach requires a different data format. The proposed floating-point unit uses an IEEE compliant internal floating-point format that allows a fast least significant bit (LSB)-first arithmetic that can be efficiently implemented in hardware. Mohamed A.S. and Baydogan V.S. propose a broader generic application/language/ model independent multi-agent framework for dynamic load balancing. The framework is intended to handle varying levels of load changes in computations, I/O, and/or synchronization throughout the application run and it is an open-architecture that currently supports four multi-level parallel programming models. An open-architecture multi-agent load-balancing capability is proposed that currently makes use of a leading geometric partitioner engine at runtime. It has been shown that the framework is effective in monitoring, tuning, and rebalancing emerging computational, I/O and synchronization sources of load imbalance. Zafar B., Pinkston T.M., Bermudez A. and Duato J. discuss InfiniBand architecture which is a newly established general-purpose interconnect standard. A method for applying the Double Scheme over InfiniBand networks is proposed. The Double Scheme provides