The course serves as an introductory course in parallel programming. It offers a series of lectures on parallel programming concepts as well as a group project providing hands-on experience with parallel programming. The students will have the unique opportunity to use the cutting-edge PLAYSTATION 3 development platform as they learn how to design and implement exciting applications for multicore architectures. At the end of the course, students will have an understanding of:

• Fundamental design philosophies that multicore architectures address.
• Parallel programming philosophies and emerging best practices.

This course is offered during the Independent Activities Period (IAP), which is a special 4-week term at MIT that runs from the first week of January until the end of the month. The course can be tailored to a normal semester time line.

Acknowledgements

The course instructors are extremely grateful to Sony, IBM, and Toshiba for their support.