To be held on Monday and Friday, workshops are an opportunity to explore special topics. Seventeen workshops are scheduled, as listed below. For more information, click below to go to the individual workshop Web site.

• Click to Workshops On Monday May 1
• Click toWorkshops On Friday May 5

Monday May 1st Workshops

Heterogeneous Computing Workshop
Heterogeneous computing systems range from diverse elements within a single computer to coordinated, geographically distributed machines with different architectures. A heterogeneous computing system provides a variety of capabilities that can be orchestrated to execute multiple tasks with varied computational requirements. Applications in these environments achieve performance by exploiting the affinity of different tasks to different computational platforms or paradigms, while considering the overhead of inter-task communication and the coordination of distinct data sources and administrative domains. 

Workshop on High-Level Parallel Programming Models & Supportive Environments
This workshop focuses on high-level programming of parallel architectures ranging from networks of workstations to massively-parallel machines. Its purpose is to bring together researchers working in the areas of applications, computational models, language design, compilers, system architecture, and programming tools to discuss new developments in programming such systems with the goal of improving convenience and productivity through high-level programming models and languages and packages that are more convenient than explicit message passing.

Workshop on Biologically Inspired Solutions to Parallel Processing Problems
Since most bio-based techniques are inherently parallel, techniques based on biological paradigms can provide efficient solutions to a wide variety of problems in parallel processing. A vast literature exists on biology-inspired approaches to solving an impressive array of problems and, more recently, a number of studies have reported on the success of such techniques for solving difficult problems in all key areas of parallel processing. This workshop enables researchers to explore this connection and related bio-based methods and tools.

Workshop on Parallel and Distributed Real-Time Systems
This Workshop brings together researchers from different communities in order to fill a number of gaps. This is vital since it is becoming more and more evident that no single discipline or method can solve all the problems related to computer-based real-time applications. While parallel and distributed systems that are not real-time have many things in common with those that are, there are also considerable differences; to find usable solutions, the issues of concurrency and dependability must be considered simultaneously. 

Workshop on Run-Time Systems for Parallel Programming
Runtime systems are critical to the implementation of parallel programming languages and libraries, since they provide the core functionality of a particular programming model and the glue between the model and the underlying hardware and operating system. As such, runtime systems have a large impact on the performance and portability of parallel programming systems, making this an important topic for discussion among runtime system designers from various backgrounds.

Reconfigurable Architectures Workshop
Technological advances in the field of fast reconfigurable devices have created new possibilities for the implementation and use of complex systems. Reconfiguration at runtime is one new dimension in computing that blurs the barriers between hardware and software components. Neither the existing processor architectures nor the hardware/software design tools, which are available today, can fully exploit the possibilities offered by this new computing paradigm. The fast pace of technological development in industry is leaving no time to develop the necessary theoretical foundation. RAW 2000 has been organized to address this issue by promoting interaction between disciplines. 

International Workshop on Java for Parallel and Distributed Computing
There is growing interest in Java from the parallel and distributed computing community as demonstrated by two previous years at IPPS/SPDP as well as other venues. Of special interest are areas related to high performance network computing. The IPDPS 2000 workshop will continue the exploration of real world applications based on Java including Internet computing, meta-computing, data mining and the related issues of portability, standardization, software methods & technology, and interoperability.

Workshop on Job Scheduling Strategies for Parallel Processing
Since the first workshop in 1995, parallel processing has evolved to the point where it is no longer synonymous with scientific computing on massively parallel supercomputers, and, in fact, enterprise computing metasystems often overshadow the original uses of parallel processing. This shift has underscored the importance of job scheduling in multi-user parallel systems and the importance of scheduling in an interactive setting, and coordinating the use of multiple non-CPU resources. This workshop will address resource management issues in multitasking parallel systems and attempt to resolve conflicting goals such as short response times for interactive work, minimal interference with batch jobs, fairness to all users, and high system utilization.

Friday May 5th Workshops

Workshop on Solving Irregularly Structured Problems in Parallel
While there are effective parallel solutions to many problems, there still exists a large class of problems – referred to as "irregularly structured problems" - that lack efficient solutions and systems support. The Irregular 2000 program aims at fostering the cooperation among practitioners and theoreticians in this field. Via oral presentation of selected papers, workshop participants will be encouraged to discuss the current state of research.

International Workshop on Personal Computer based Networks Of Workstations
Clusters composed of fast personal computers are becoming more and more attractive as cheap and efficient platforms for distributed and parallel applications. One of the main drawbacks of a standard Cluster is the poor performance of the standard inter-process communication mechanisms. Several prototypes and research projects have proved that optimizing the implementation of the communication layer of a standard operating system kernel, a low cost hardware platform composed of only commodity components can scale up to many processing nodes and deliver performance exceeding the one delivered by the conventional high-cost parallel platforms. The issues surrounding this research and other related developments are explored in this workshop.

Workshop on Formal Methods for Parallel Programming
Formal methods have been widely investigated in academic institutions and more recently have been applied in industry. They allow systems and their properties to be described precisely using mathematical notation, and although expensive to apply, formal methods can increase confidence that an implementation is correct with respect to a specification - an important tool for the development of reliable systems. The objective of this workshop is to present case studies which show both modeling and proving phases of work done to demonstrate the correctness of an implementation – particularly in studies borrowed from parallel processing or distributed computing.

Workshop on Embedded HPC Systems and Applications
This workshop is a forum for the presentation and discussion of approaches, research findings, and experiences in the applications of High Performance Computing (HPC) technology for embedded/distributed systems. Of interest is both the development of relevant technology (e.g.: hardware, middleware, tools) as well as the embedded HPC applications built using such technology. The program will feature work being done to explore the special needs and issues in applying HPC technologies to defense and commercial applications.

Workshop on Fault-Tolerant Parallel and Distributed Systems
Increasingly large parallel computing systems provide unique challenges to the researchers in dependable computing, especially because of the high failure rates intrinsic to these systems. While commercial and scientific companies share the need for massive throughput and low latency, dependability of service is a concern as well as data corruption. Achieving dependability in highly scalable parallel and distributed systems poses a considerable challenge (e.g., as number of components increases, so does the probability component failure). This workshop addresses these issues by exploring all aspects of design, theory and realization of parallel and distributed systems.

Workshop on High Performance Data Mining
The explosive growth in data collection in business and scientific fields obviates the need to analyze and "mine" useful knowledge from it. Due to the huge size of data and amount of computation involved in data mining, high-performance computing is an essential component for any successful large-scale data mining application. This workshop will highlight the applications, algorithms, software, and systems, which have greatest promise in this field.

Workshop on Parallel and Distributed Computing in Image Processing, Video Processing, and Multimedia
Computing with visual and multimedial data is now a key technology in many areas, but the creation, processing, and management of these data types require an enormous computational effort, often too high for single processor architectures. This fact taken together with the inherent data parallelism in these data types makes image processing, video processing, and multimedia natural application areas for parallel and distributed computing. This workshop brings together practitioners and researchers working in all aspects of parallel and distributed computing in these fields to broker an exchange of novel ideas on corresponding hardware developments, software tools, system solutions, and all types of applications. 

Workshop on Advances in Parallel and Distributed Computational Models
Most of the early models for parallel and distributed computing were developed for PRAM-like platforms, featuring various degrees of synchronization. While they proved to be ideal testbeds for algorithm development, they ignored key implementation issues, including interprocessor communication, memory access, and synchronization, leading now to a trend away from the PRAM model towards more realistic computational models that better address practical architectural concerns. This workshop will explore that change in direction by looking at new parallel and distributed computational models such as optical interconnects, FPGA devices, networks of workstations, radio communications, DNA computing, quantum computing, etc.