Programming Research Group AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF SORTING ALGORITHMS ON THE BSP MODEL: THEORY, PRACTICE AND EXPERIENCE

The Bulk-Synchronous Parallel (BSP) model of computation has been proposed by L.G. Valiant as a unifying and bridging model for the design, analysis and implementation of parallel algorithms that are both scalable and portable among diverse parallel machines. In this work we implement, using the Oxford BSP Toolset, BSPlib, a multiplicity of BSP deterministic and randomized sorting algorithms on a variety of parallel systems, including the SGI Power Challenge and the CRAY T3D. Our experimental results illustrate the eeciency, portability and reusability of our algorithms across such diverse hardware platforms, and reinforce our claim that the BSP model can be prootably employed as a programming platform or, indeed, as a kind of programming paradigm.