Our study in this paper focuses on implementing parallel spanning tree algorithms on SMPs. Spanning tree is an important problem in the sense that it is the building block for many other parallel graph algorithms and also because it is representative of a large class of irregular combinatorial problems that have simple and efficient sequential implementations and fast PRAM algorithms, but often have no known efficient parallel implementations. In this paper we present a new randomized algorithm and implementation with superior performance that for the first-time achieves parallel speedup on arbitrary graphs (both regular and irregular topologies) when compared with the best sequential implementation for finding a spanning tree. This new algorithm uses several techniques to give an expected running time that scales linearly with the number p of processors for suitably large inputs (n> p 2). As the spanning tree problem is notoriously hard for any parallel implementation to achieve reasonable speedup, our study may shed new light on implementing PRAM algorithms for shared-memory parallel computers. The main results of this paper are 1. A new and practical spanning tree algorithm for symmetric multiprocessors that exhibits parallel speedups on graphs with regular and irregular topologies; and 2. An experimental study of parallel spanning tree algorithms that reveals the superior performance of our new approach compared with the previous algorithms. The source code for these algorithms is freely-available from our web site hpc.ece.unm.edu.

Abstract not found

Combinatorial problems such as those from graph theory pose serious challenges for parallel machines due to non-contiguous, concurrent accesses to global data structures with low degrees of locality. The hierarchical memory systems of symmetric multiprocessor (SMP) clusters optimize for local, contiguous memory accesses, and so are inefficient platforms for such algorithms. Few parallel graph algorithms outperform their best sequential implementation on SMP clusters due to long memory latencies and high synchronization costs. In this paper, we consider the performance and scalability of two graph algorithms, list ranking and connected components, on two classes of sharedmemory computers: symmetric multiprocessors such as the Sun Enterprise servers and multithreaded architectures

For many fundamental problems there exist randomized algorithms that are asymptotically optimal and are superior to the best known deterministic algorithm. Among these are the minimum spanning tree (MST) problem, the MST sensitivity analysis problem, the parallel connected components and parallel minimum spanning tree problems, and the local sorting and set maxima problems. (For the first two problems there are provably optimal deterministic algorithms with unknown, and possibly superlinear running times.) One downside of the randomized methods for solving these problems is that they use a number of random bits linear in the size of the input. In this paper we develop some general methods for reducing exponentially the consumption of random bits in comparison based algorithms. In some cases we are able to reduce the number of random bits from linear to nearly constant without affecting the expected running time. Most of our results are obtained by adjusting or reorganizing existing randomized algorithms to work well with a pairwise or O(1)-wise independent sampler. The prominent exception — and the main focus of this paper — is a linear-time randomized minimum spanning tree algorithm that is not derived from the well known Karger-Klein-Tarjan algorithm. In many ways it resembles more closely the deterministic minimum spanning tree algorithms based on Soft Heaps. Further,