HPCwire: MASSIVELY PARALLEL TECH MATHEMATICALLY DERIVES AMDAHL'S LAW

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January 21, 2005

MASSIVELY PARALLEL TECH MATHEMATICALLY DERIVES AMDAHL'S LAW

Massively Parallel Technologies (MPT), a provider of on-demand high- performance computing, announced the company has developed the first mathematical derivation of Amdahl's Law. The derivation leads to a new level of understanding of the fundamentals underlying parallel processing, which has allowed MPT to establish a new standard for speeding up high performance computing. Amdahl's Law, though never before proven through a mathematical derivation from first principles, helped establish the supercomputing industry and has for more than 30 years been a force in the industry.

Gene Amdahl, a recognized authority on parallel processing, crafted "Amdahl's Law" in 1967, which states that there are communication issues that eventually place an upper limit on the maximum speed of parallel processing systems, therefore mitigating much of the benefit of parallelization. Amdahl's Law has until now limited parallel processing's appeal as a commercially viable solution.

For 35 plus years, traditional non-mathematic interpretations of Amdahl's Law have led developers of supercomputers to believe that only 20 percent or less efficiency was possible through parallel processing, with larger machines achieving only 7 percent to 10 percent efficiency. The limitations implied by this interpretation led developers to concentrate on building expensive systems that relied on the fastest components available.

The Massively Parallel approach, now confirmed by Amdahl's Law as the most efficient method of parallel processing, concentrates on improving the efficiency of the communication methodology between processors. This has resulted in systems that exceed 90 percent efficiency rather than the previously believed limit of 20 percent. The breakthrough also allows systems to be built with low cost commodity hardware to solve problems in minutes rather than hours.

Advances in computing speed and efficiency have to date conformed to Moore's Law which states that computing power will double every 18 months. The MPT breakthrough allows for an improvement on the order of one thousand times what is currently available today, promising to dramatically extend the upper limit of the world's fastest supercomputers.

Impressed with MPT's achievements, Dr. Amdahl now sits on the company's board of advisors. "It is a great pleasure for me to see the fruits of my work being realized so dramatically by MPT," said Amdahl. "MPT's technology will allow supercomputing power to be used by anyone, anywhere and I have no doubt it will result in dramatic achievement and scientific advancements. The sky's the limit."

Massively Parallel Technologies co-founder and chief technology officer Kevin Howard surprised Dr. Amdahl with the first mathematical derivation of Amdahl's Law at a recent gathering at the company's headquarters in Louisville, Colorado.

"Amdahl's Law, and Dr. Amdahl himself, were already legends," stated Howard. "Our mathematical derivation of Amdahl's Law cements his place in history. Dr. Amdahl's foresight is simply astonishing."

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