diku-dk/hpps-e2023-pub

Public repository for the 2023 edition of HPPS

Syllabus and Material for High Performance Programming and Systems (HPPS)

Welcome to the course website for HPPS! While assignment handin is still on Absalon, all material and information will be located here. You are not expected to treat this repository as anything more than a website, but feel free to clone it if you are already comfortable with Git.

Basics

HPPS takes place in block 2. There are three kinds of in-person teaching activities: lectures, exercises and the study café. All take place physically on campus.

Lectures are mostly conventional and serve as warmup for the exercises.

Exercises are conducted in four smaller classes, each conducted by a teaching assistant (TA). An exercise session involves working on problems that will help you learn the curriculum, and in many cases directly train you in the skills you will need for the mandatory assignments.

Study cafés are places where you can get assistance with the mandatory assignments.

This course website is used for handing out material.

Discord can be used for asking questions. (Invite link.)

Absalon is used for handing in assignments and for course announcements.

Textbook

The textbooks are as follows:

• JG: Modern C (CC-licensed PDF)

• HPPS: HPPS course notes PDF - these will be updated as the course progresses, so make sure to regularly check that you have the newest version

Schedule

Tuesday

• Lecture: 10:00-12:00 (Aud 05, HCØ).

Thursday

• Exercises: 10:00-12:00

• Lecture: 13:00-15:00 (Aud 05, HCØ)

• Exercises: 15:00-17:00

Exercises are split along four hold. Due to space limitations, two of the hold share a single room:

• Hold 1: 10:00-12:00, 1-0-04 (DIKU), 15:00-17:00: 2.1.I.156 (NBB)

• Hold 2: 10:00-12:00, Auditorium Syd (NEXS), 15:00-17:00: NBB 2.2.I.158 (NBB)

• Hold 3+4: 10:00-12:00, 4-0-32 (Biocenter), 15:00-17:00: 4-0-32 (Biocenter).

(We are aware that these room allocations seem quite random, but it is almost impossible to change. Remarkably, the above will lessen confusion.)

Friday

• Assignment café 13:00-15:00 (lille UP1, DIKU).

Assignments

There are 6 assignment in total during the course with deadlines roughly every week. They overlap slightly to allow for more flexibility in your scheduling, but think of them as weekly assignment.

The assignments will be graded with points from 0 to 4 and it is not possible to re-hand-in any of the assignments.

Assignments are made to be solved in groups of preferably three students, but groups of two active students will also do. We strongly encourage you not to work alone. Groups cannot be larger than three students. Each group must make their own solutions and cannot share implementations and report with other. You may however discuss material and ideas.

A1

• Handout: 23/11

• Handin deadline: 3/12

A2

• Handout: 30/11

• Handin deadline: 10/12

A3

• Handout: 7/12

• Handin deadline: 17/12

A4

• Handout: 14/12

• Handin deadline: 24/12

A5

• Handout: 21/12

• Handin deadline: 7/1

A6

• Handout: 4/1

• Handin deadline: 14/1

Study café

Every Friday in from 13:00-15:00 you can attend the assignment café to get help with the assignments. The cafés are at Lille UP-1 at DIKU.

Languages

All written material will be in English.

Most oral teaching will be in Danish or English, depending on the specific teacher or TA.

You will mainly be programming in C and Python.

Software

You will be using a Unix command line and Unix tools for much of the course. See the Unix software guide.

See also this guide on the GDB debugger, which is a very useful tool for debugging C programs.

If you prefer an IDE see the VS Code installation and setup guide.

People

The teachers are

• Troels Henriksen [email protected]
• David Gray Marchant [email protected]

The TAs are

• Hold 1: Riasat Abbas [email protected]

• Hold 2: Axel Højmark [email protected]

• Hold 3: Rasmus Pallisgaard [email protected]

• Hold 4: Jonatan Ruiz-Molsgaard [email protected]

Exam

Format

The exam will be a take-home exam that will be very similar in form to the mandatory assignments. See examples of old exams here. It has an estimated workload of 20 hours. It will involve practical programming and performance analysis of programs.

Qualification

To qualify for the exam you are required to achieve at least 50% of the total number of points in the first five assignments (that is, 10 points at minimum). You also need to get at least one point in each of the first five assignment.

Date

The exam will be held in week 3, Monday 9:00 to Wednesday 12:00.

Course plan

Each teaching activity has an associated subdirectory here on GitHub that lists expected reading and other material. Direct links will eventually be added below.