[computer-go] MPI vs. threads

[Darren Cook]

Down the years my excuse for working on computer go has been as a
test-bed for learning new technologies. This time it is taking advantage
of multi-core.

Interesting article here [1]:
 http://www.linux-mag.com/launchpad/business-class-hpc/main/3538

What do people think about this? What about the specific example of
wanting to run multiple random playouts (or heavy playouts) in a UCT
program? Can MPI be as quick as threads on a 2- or 4-core single
machine? [2] Playouts have practically no memory demands.

What about if a heavy playout algorithm is using a pattern library too
big to fit in the cores local cache? Would that change the MPI vs.
threads decision?

Darren


[1]: I think it requires membership, but it is free, and no catches
except you get emails telling you about new articles.

[2]: My question is about MPI vs. thread overhead; not about overhead
comparisons between say a cluster of 4 single-core machines and a single
4-cpu machine. That is a kettle of fish for a different thread. ;-)


-- 
Darren Cook
http://dcook.org/mlsn/ (English-Japanese-German-Chinese free dictionary)
http://dcook.org/work/ (About me and my work)
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