Hey yo!
Day 4: MPI
So today we had part 2 of the high performance computing lecture and tutorial. We learn to use MPI to connect a whole bunch of computers in the computer lab together in order to speed up processing by breaking up the programme into smaller parts and giving each mini task to a another processor to work on simultaneously.
So, since I realized I forgot to post any pics showing how class is like I’ll do it here!
Classes here so far consists of a lecture in the morning follow by a tutorial in the afternoon. During the tutorial we would be given a series of task to try to do, while the profs and student assistance walk around and help whoever needs it.
Day 5: CUDA and Super Computer!!!
We had our last lecture and tutorial on HPC, using CUDA to parallelise work by making use of surprise surprise, the GPU, not the CPU. I finally got my code to work! so yay to that!
After that we got to visit ARCCA, Cardiff’s advanced research computing department, who has their very own super computer! Actually it was all in racks and cabinets, so nothing much to see, but there were plenty of other stuff to observe. For example, the heat produced was still pretty significant despite the various cooling systems that are employed to keep the processors cool. Also, we learn about what goes into maintaining a super computer as well. Which overall was really pretty cool.
Saturday: Stonehenge and the City of Oxford!!!
I FINALLY SAW STONEHENGE IN REAL LIFE!!! Its actually located in a park and you can take a shuttle bus or walk in from the visitor center. Funny enough you can see Stonehenge from a highway next to the park. Surrounding it are fields with sheep and also “mounds” which look like tiny hills, but turns out to be burial grounds, hence the theory that Stonehenge was actually a temple.
Next we went to the city of Oxford, where I strangely could not find a dictionary. We only had about 3 hours there before we had to leave, so I only managed to visit 2 places, the Ashmolean Museum (a human history museum) and The Covered Market.
The museum was huge and unfortunately I did not have enough time to read everything and had to skip a lot, and yet I still could not finish seeing everything. So yeah, HUGE. Best part, its FREE!!! Actually many museums in UK seems to be free, with quality exhibitions, which I think is a really good thing as it gives everyone a chance to want to visit a museum and learn new things.
The Covered Market was like a cross between a wet market, a pasa malum, and Bugis shopping street. Like the shops were permanent structures, but there was all kinds of shops, like butchery, ice cream, dinners, raw fish, barbers, clothes, flowers, souvenir, art, they had it all!
~~~
Till next time,
Yi Xuan out!
