[Beowulf] vectors vs. loops

[Andrew Piskorski]

On Tue, Apr 26, 2005 at 10:01:25AM -0500, Ben Mayer wrote:

> I actually just did a small study of how well students in a parallel
> computing class write parallel codes on X1 with MPI and UPC. One of
> the things that stood out is that they tended to do odd things in
> their loops that inhibit code from vectorizing.

So, why were these students writing loops in the first place?  If the
goal is to generate vectorized code, wouldn't it make more sense to
use a language or library which directly supports vector commands?

E.g., although they're used for serial not parallel programming, S and
R are vector oriented in a pleasantly convenient way.  There do exist
languages and libraries specifically intended for vector programming,
like CVL or NESL, right, so, are they not useful?

  http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/project/scandal/public/papers/cvl.html
  http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~scandal/

-- 
Andrew Piskorski <atp at piskorski.com>
http://www.piskorski.com/