Homework 1: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Last Updated: 12th April, 2007, 12:30AM

1. How do I get started?
First, you need to get the harness code for the homework. The harness includes 
a Makefile, a matrix generator and a result validator. Login to your Datastar 
account and copy the harness:
cp -r ~ux454229/CS240A/hw1/ .
This will copy the files in the hw1 directory in your current directory. 

You need to implement the powermethod function in powermethod-upc.c (for UPC)
and powermethod-mpi.c (for MPI). The harness (see harness-mpi.c, harness-upc.c.)
will generate the matrix and vector for you. It will also check the correctness
of the result of your powermethod function.

2. How do I compile/run/test my code?
First, please familiarize yourself with the Makefile included with the harness.
There is a marked section in the Makefile where you can select the target 
(UPC or MPI), the number of processes to run and the problem size (matrix size).
 
To compile:
make upc (OR make mpi for MPI)

To run:
make runupc (OR make runmpi for MPI)

NOTE: Do the compile on dslogin.sdsc.edu and the run on dspoe.sdsc.edu

To clean-up object files and executables:
make clean

To update the harness:
make update

Updates/bug-fixes to the harness will be announced on the mailing list.

UPDATE: There is a new target (serial) to help you write a serial version of the
assignment. The serial version is not required as part of the homework but it 
might help if you develop the serial code first followed by the UPC and MPI 
versions. First select the serial target (GCC) in the Makefile. 

To compile:
make serial

To run:
make runserial (or make serialrun)

You can compile/run the serial version on CSIL machines too! You can debug it 
using gdb on CSIL and dbx on DataStar.

3. I have a question that is not answered in this FAQ!
Please check if the question has been already answered on the mailing list:
http://groups.google.com/group/UCSB-Computer-Science-240A-Spring-2007
If not, please post your question on the class mailing list:
ucsb-computer-science-240a-spring-2007@googlegroups.com