Parallella Competition Rules (Rev 0.0)

Parallella Programming Challenge

Rev 0.0

Goal

To create a fun competition where a new generation of programmers can be challenged and gain experience in parallel algorithms and parallel programming.

Hardware Platform

All teams will use identical parallel hardware platform consisting of FOUR Parallella (16+2)-core boards connected together through a Gigabit Ethernet switch. Hardware modifications are allowed but teams are not allowed to add additional ICs.

Software Platform

The team brings its own software to the Parallella platform, including but not limited to: writing libraries, hand optimizing code, and bringing their own tools and operating systems. All code used in the competition must be Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS).

 “Grande Challenge” Competition

• Competition will be run for three months on a specific “grande challenge” task disclosed at the beginning of the competition. Reference code, test harness, and test vectors must be provided for the challenge tasks as part of the competition.
• The competition runs for three months after which there is a meet up to test-run the software and declare the winner of the competition.
• Two awards will be given:
  • One award will be given to the team that achieves the fastest wall time for the Grande challenge task
  • Another award will be given to the team that consumes the least amount of energy for the Grande challenge task.

Speed Competition

• Teams will be given 12 hours to solve a specific task using their Parallella cluster. At the end of the 12 hours, teams will submit results for review.
• Two awards will be given:
  • An award will be given to the team that achieves the fastest wall time for the speed competition task
  • An award will be given to the team that achieves the lowest energy consumed for speed competition task.

Categories

• There will be a university level competition and a high school level competition.

Eligibility

University team members must be eligible students for the duration of the competition. High school team members must be active high school students for the duration of the competition.

Ethics

Reuse of existing code and collaboration is encouraged!  All copyright, license laws and regulations must be observed and ideas, code, and concepts developed by others should be clearly referenced by the competing teams.

Events

Events will be announced at Parallella.org but self-organization is encouraged. To get an event announced at Parallella.org, a proposer must bring the commitment of four other schools (for a minimum participation of 5). For example, someone affiliated with a university could propose an event if he/she has four other universities committed.  Parallella.org will also organize a “Parallel Programming World Championship” to be held in the Fall of 2013.