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8.1.1 Matrix Decomposition

The data decomposition (or distribution) is a major factor in determining the efficiency of a concurrent matrix algorithm, so before detailing the research into concurrent linear algebra done at Caltech, we shall first introduce some basic decomposition strategies.

The processors of a concurrent computer can be uniquely labelled by , where is the number of processors. A vector of length M may be decomposed over the processors by assigning the vector entry with global index m (where ) to processor p, where it is stored as the ientry in a local array. Thus, the decomposition of a vector can be regarded as a mapping of the global index, m, to an index pair, , specifying the processor number and local index.

For matrix problems, the processors are usually arranged as a grid. Thus, the grid consists of P rows of processors and Q columns of processors, and . Each processor can be uniquely identified by its position, , on the processor grid. The decomposition of an matrix can be regarded as the Cartesian  product of two vector decompositions, and . The mapping decomposes the M rows of the matrix over the P processor rows, and decomposes the N columns of the matrix over the Q processor columns. Thus, if and , then the matrix entry with global index is assigned to the processor at position on the processor grid, where it is stored in a local array with index .

Two common decompositions are the linear and scattered decompositions. The linear decomposition, , assigns contiguous entries in the global vector to the processors in blocks,

where

and and . The scattered decomposition, , assigns consecutive entries in the global vector to different processors,

Figure 8.1 shows examples of these two types of decomposition for a matrix.

  
Figure 8.1: These Eight Figures Show Different Ways of Decomposing a Matrix. Each cell represents a matrix entry, and is labelled by the position, , in the processor grid of the processor to which it is assigned. To emphasize the pattern of decomposition, the matrix entries assigned to the processor in the first row and column of the processor grid are shown shaded. Figures (a) and (b) show linear and scattered row-oriented decompositions, respectively, for four processors arranged as a grid (P=4, Q=1). In Figures (c) and (d), the corresponding column-oriented decompositions are shown (P=1, Q=4). Figures (e) through (h) show linear and scattered block-oriented decompositions for 16 processors arranged as a grid (P=Q=4).

The mapping of processors onto the processor grid is determined by the programming methodology, which in turn depends closely on the concurrent hardware. For machines such as the nCUBE-1  hypercube, it is advantageous to exploit any locality properties in the algorithm in order to reduce communication costs. In such cases, processors may be mapped onto the processor grid by a binary Gray code scheme [Fox:88a], [Saad:88a], which ensures that adjacent processors on the processor grid are directly connected by a communication channel. For machines such as the Symult 2010, for which the time to send a message between any two processors is almost independent of their separation in the hardware topology, locality of communication is not an issue, and the processors can be mapped arbitrarily onto the processor grid.



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Next: 8.1.2 Basic Matrix Arithmetic Up: 8.1 Full and Banded Previous: 8.1 Full and Banded



Guy Robinson
Wed Mar 1 10:19:35 EST 1995