Solving Partial Differential Equations on a Network of Transputers

Abstract

This paper describes in a first part some numerical experiments using the transputer. A simple equation (two-dimensional Laplace) was chosen as the vehicle for our efforts. This equation was solved using parallelized versions of the classical algorithms: Jacobi, SOR. Two different parallel methods were used for each of the two algorithms, allowing us to draw some more general conclusions regarding such performance-determining parameters as the computation/communication ratio in transputer networks.

We also speculate on the influence of a much faster floating-point unit on the performance of a network for this kind of problems (such a unit is now available in the form of the T800 Transputer).

In a second part an overview is given of an ESPRIT proposal that aims to design and implement a high level user-friendly programming environment for solving PDE on a network of transputers.