Current Catalog Description:

COSC 451 Numerical Methods for Supercomputers

3c-0l-3sh

Prerequisites: MATH 121 and 122, or MATH 123 or 127, MATH 171, COSC 250

Supercomputers make use of special computer architectures—vector and parallel processors—in order to achieve the fastest processing speed currently available. Students will be introduced to these features and will learn how numerical algorithms can be constructed to exploit supercomputers’ capabilities. Students will gain practical experience in programming for the Cray, YMP, in incorporating existing scientific software packages into user-written programs, in submitting remote jobs to the Pittsburgh Supercomputer Center, and in producing animated graphical output to summarize the typically large volume of output data generated by large scientific programs. (Also offered as MATH 451; may not be taken for duplicate credit)

Proposed Catalog Description:

COSC 451 Numerical Methods for Supercomputers

3c-0l-3sh

Prerequisites: MATH 121 and 122, or MATH 123, MATH 171, COSC 250

Supercomputers make use of special computer architectures—vector and parallel processors—in order to achieve the fastest processing speed currently available. Students will be introduced to these features and will learn how numerical algorithms can be constructed to exploit supercomputers’ capabilities. Students will gain practical experience in programming for the Cray, YMP, in incorporating existing scientific software packages into user-written programs, in submitting remote jobs to the Pittsburgh Supercomputer Center, and in producing animated graphical output to summarize the typically large volume of output data generated by large scientific programs. (Also offered as MATH 451; may not be taken for duplicate credit)

Rationale: