Authors

Pedro Valero-Lara, Abel Paz-Gallardo, Manuel Prieto-Matías, Alfredo Pinelli, Erich L Foster, Johan Jansson

Innovative Research and Applications in Next-Generation High Performance Computing

ISBN: 1522502874

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-0287-6.ch006

Abstract

This chapter presents an overview of the evolution of computer architecture, giving special attention on those advances which have promoted the current hybrid systems. After that, we focus on the most extended programming strategies applied to hybrid computing. In fact, programming is one of the most important challenges for this kind of systems, as it requires a high knowledge of the hardware to achieve a good performance. Current hybrid systems are basically composed by three components, two processors (multicore and manycore) and an interconnection bus (PCIe), which connects both processors. Each of the components must be managed differently. After presenting the particular features of current hybrid systems, authors focus on introducing some approaches to exploit simultaneously each of the components. Finally, to clarify how to program in these platforms, two cases studies are presented and analyzed in deep. At the end of the chapter, authors outline the main insights behind hybrid computing and introduce upcoming advances in hybrid systems.