Developing SPPVM modules with visual basic

Abstract

The development of true Parallel Machines of which literatures are scanty is still algorithmitic. Since the need for increasing power in computations is the wish of every programmer or designer, PVMs become more of a choice. PVMs enable large computational problems to be solved more cost effectively by using aggregated power and memory of many computers. This paper develops a SPPVM (Single Processor Parallel Virtual Machine) with Visual Basic. It employs the VB Shell command to cause a single program or instruction to execute in two different shells in same memory space. A quick sort program is implemented on two shells. Each shell sorts 500 elements. The machine used for the execution is: Intel (r) Celeron ™ Processor – Genuine Intel ~ 600 Mhz, with Total Physical Mem. = 30.45MB, Available Physical Mem. = 232KB, Total Virtual Mem. = 2GB, Available Virtual Mem. = 1.90GB, Page File space = 1.97GB at runtime. Result comparison with a strictly sequential version reveals that the SPPVM executes in less time than ½ x Tseq (thetheoretical value for two processes in parallel). The key benefit of this paper is to enable programmers explore parallel programming features on micro systems and develop their own SPPVM.



Keywords: Shell function, Self-diagnostic, Multi processing, Multi-Platform, Parallel Processing.

[Global Jnl Mathematical Sci Vol.2(1) 2003: 29-36]