At work recently, I found myself trying to explain the Work-Efficiency vs Step-Efficiency tradeoff to a coworker, but when I searched for online resources to help I couldn’t find any that I liked, so I decided to take a shot at writing my own. I found this idea presented in a video lecture series about programming for GPGPUs on Youtube a while ago. However, it’s just as applicable to any form of parallel processing, from SIMD instructions running on a single CPU core up to massive clusters of thousands of computers.
Good explanation of the difference between work efficiency and step efficiency when talking about parallel algorithms.
Yes. Took my first computer class in 1978. Fortran of all things. Hooked immediately. Considered CS, but actually went the Science side of things doing a combination of design, simulation, instrument control, and machine control. Whatever was needed. Lot of changes in hardware, software, languages, etc. on one hand but on the other hand not so much. At some level it has all been the same.
It is interesting, isn’t it? This is why I love computing as a field; the whole “spectrum” from theory to practice is just super fascinating.
Yes. Took my first computer class in 1978. Fortran of all things. Hooked immediately. Considered CS, but actually went the Science side of things doing a combination of design, simulation, instrument control, and machine control. Whatever was needed. Lot of changes in hardware, software, languages, etc. on one hand but on the other hand not so much. At some level it has all been the same.