Dr. Behrooz Parhami of University of California, Santa Barbara

Interconnecting multiple processors in a parallel supercomputer or servers in a data center constitutes a challenging problem. There are so many ways to interconnect the computing nodes that the range of options has come to be known as “the sea of interconnection networks.” In this talk, I will outline the theoretical underpinnings of interconnection network design in a way that exposes the challenges. I will then review desirable network properties and relate them to various network classes that have been used or proposed. Emphasis will be placed on robustness attributes of networks, given that large networks with many thousands or perhaps even millions of nodes are bound to experience malfunctions in nodes and links.

Biography:

Behrooz Parhami (PhD in computer science from University of California, Los Angeles, 1973) is Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and former Associate Dean for Academic Personnel, College of Engineering, at University of California, Santa Barbara. He has research interests in computer arithmetic, parallel processing, and dependable computing. In his previous position with Sharif (formerly Arya-Mehr) University of Technology in Tehran, Iran (1974-1988), he was also involved in educational planning, curriculum development, standardization efforts, technology transfer, and various editorial responsibilities, including a five-year term as Editor of Computer Report, a Persian-language computing periodical. His technical publications include over 300 papers in peer-reviewed journals and international conferences, a Persian-language textbook, and an English/Persian glossary of computing terms. Among his publications are three textbooks on parallel processing (Plenum, 1999), computer arithmetic (Oxford, 2000; 2nd ed. 2010), and computer architecture (Oxford, 2005). Professor Parhami is a Life Fellow of IEEE, a Fellow of IET, a Chartered Fellow of the British Computer Society, a member of the Association for Computing Machinery and American Society for Engineering Education, and a Distinguished Member of the Informatics Society of Iran for which he served as a founding member and President during 1979-84. Professor Parhami has served on the editorial boards of IEEE Trans. Sustainable Computing (since 2016), IEEE Trans. Computers (2009-2014; 2016-now), IEEE Trans. Parallel and Distributed Systems (2006-2010), and International J. Parallel, Emergent and Distributed Systems (2006-2012). He also chaired IEEE’s Iran Section (1977-1986), received the IEEE Centennial Medal in 1984, and was honored with a most-cited paper award from J. Parallel & Distributed Computing in 2010. His consulting activities cover the design of high-performance digital systems and associated intellectual property issues.

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