• Learn about Sandy Bridge and parallel programming. Presentation times: 4:00 pm and 6:00 pm
• See developer tool demos of the Intel® Parallel Studio, Intel® AVX, and Intel® Concurrency Checker
• Refreshments will be served
• Learn about the Parallel Programming Community and how to be an active author
• Meet the Parallel Programming Community Manager, Intel® Software Partner Program managers and other developers
• Provide feedback to the Parallel Programming Community on Sandy Bridge
• Click the "Register Now" link to go to the Intel® Learning Network registration page and navigate to the Meetup Registration page using your Intel User Account. If you do not have an account, create one on the registration page and then navigate to the Meetup registration page on ILN.


• Need directions? Here's a Map.

1. Contest Application: The Bodytrack Application

Download and Build:

Introduction

Contest Application: This contest utilizes the bodytrack benchmark which is part of the Princeton Application Repository for Shared-Memory Computers (PARSEC) benchmark suite.  More information about PARSEC can be found at: http://parsec.cs.princeton.edu/index.htm.

Prerequisite

In order to participate in this contest, you will need to extract files from a gzip'ed tar archive ( .tar.gz ).  Please insure that you have an application, such as Winzip, that can extract files from a .tar.gz archive file.

Obtain the Contest Application and Contest Input Files

Step 1. Download the application from the PARSEC benchmark suite:  this archived benchmark suite contains the source and project files for the contest application.  This suite also contains input data files, but these are not recommended.  Use the input files below.

Note: Please note that you should use the latest upgraded version of the Microsoft IE or any other browser such as Firefox to ensure smooth and correct download.

Step 2. Download the input files to be used by the contest application.  The native PARSEC benchmark input files contain the input data used for running the application.  Contest entries will be judged according to this input set.  BE SURE TO USE THESE INPUT FILES AND NOT THE INPUT FILES PACKAGED WITH THE PARSEC Benchmark Suite.
Step 3. (Optional) Download a set of test input files useful for quick testing, other PARSEC benchmark input files.  This set of other input file data sets can be used for analysis.  These tests do not take as long to run. These input file data sets are useful for quick tests, but will not be used for judging purposes.

Build the contest application "bodytrack" on Windows*

1. Extract the PARSEC source obtained in Step 1 above to a working directory in which you have read and write access.  We will refer to this working directory as <parsec-dir>
2. After extracting the files to <parsec-dir> using Winzip or any other archive extraction tool, use Windows Explorer to nativate  to directory <parsec-dir>\parsec-2.0\pkgs\apps\bodytrack\src\
3. A Microsoft Visual Studio* project file "TrackingBenchmark.sln" will be in the above directory. Start your Parallel Studio environment.  Open the TrackingBenchmark.sln solution file located in <parsec-dir>\parsec-2.0\pkgs\apps\bodytrack\src\ using menu options ‘File'->'Open'->'Project/Solution'
4.    Once the ‘TrackingBenchmark' solution is open, you will notice several project folders within this solution.  Three of the project folders in this solution MUST BE REMOVED from the solution. The  following 3 folders:
   "Intel TBB threading", "OMPThreading" and "PThreadsThreading"
    will cause compilation (build) errors when you build the bodytrack application if these folders are left in the solution.  Please remove the folders "Intel TBB threading", "OMPThreading" and "PThreadsThreading".  To do this, highlight the folder and either hit the ‘Delete' key on your keyboard OR right-click and select ‘Remove' from the pop-up menu. At a later time you may wish to review these 3 project folders as reference and suggestions for the contest.  Whatever you do, make sure that these 3 project folders are no longer part of the TrackingBenchmark solution.
5. Select Win32 Release configuration
6. Set the project to use Intel(R) C++ Compiler by right-clicking on the project name and selecting "Intel Parallel Composer -> Use Intel C++"
7. Build the solution.  You should build without errors.

Run the contest application:

Steps to run bodytrack

Extract using Winzip or another archive tool the PARSEC input files obtained in Step 2 from the section "Obtain the Contest Application and Contest Input Files" above to a folder or directory which we will refer to as <input-dir>.  Remember, the contest input files are different from the input files packaged with the PARSEC source file archive.

1. Open an IA-32 command prompt window from the Intel Parallel Studio menu under Start->Programs and change directories to where the executable built from project "TrackingBenchmark".  The executable name depends on your project settings.  For reference later, we'll call it Trackingbenchmark.exe.  By default, this would be in the Release\ subdirectory in your project TrackingBenchmark directory.   An example command to change directory is:

cd "<parsec-dir>\parsec-2.0\pkgs\apps\bodytrack\src\TrackingBenchmark\Release"

2. Run the executable with the command arguments:
   • TrackingBechmark.exe <input-dir>pkgs\apps\bodytrack\inputs\input_native\sequenceB_261  4 261 4000 5
   • This corresponds to TrackingBenchmark.exe  <Dataset Path> <# of cameras> <# of frames to process>  <# of particles> <# of annealing layers>

Help with building and running the benchmark

If you have difficulty with the instructions above, please post a question to the Intel Parallel Studio Forum in response to the original thread entitled:  "Details on the Intel® Parallel Studio Parallelism Contest & Lab at the Intel® Developer Forum San Francisco 2009"

Participation

The SFTL003 - Intel® Parallel Studio Parallelism Contest and Lab at the Intel Developer Forum 2009 will begin on September 2, 2009 and end September 23, 2009.  Entries will be submitted at the Intel Developer Forum lab SFTL003. The contest will consist of one open source application which should be parallelized with Intel® Parallel Studio in the Microsoft Visual Studio*. The open source application used for this contest is the bodytrack benchmark which is part of the Princeton Application Repository for Shared-Memory Computers (PARSEC) benchmark suite.

There will be a one winner in 3 categories:

(i) best overall performance improvement,  

(ii) best core utilization

(iii) best use of Intel® Parallel Studio

In addition the first 50 valid entries will also receive a commercial license of Intel® Parallel Studio.  

Download Intel® Parallel Studio

All applicants can download a 30 day evaluation version of Intel® Parallel Studio here if they do not already own one.

How to download the open source applications

To participate in the Intel® Parallel Studio Parallelism Coding Contest You will be asked to download a third party software applications listed above which will be subject to terms and conditions of these third party licenses. Installation, use and/or further distribution by You will be subject to such third party licenses. Intel expressly disclaims liability of any kind with respect to installation, use or distribution by You of any such third party software.

Please see the Intel® Parallel Studio Forum posting entitled, "SFTL003 - Intel® Parallel Studio Parallelism Contest and Lab at the Intel Developer Forum 2009" for details on how to download and build the bodytrack application.

To Enter

The contest requires participants to optimize the body track application by adding parallelization using Intel ® Parallel Studio, submit the Microsoft Visual Studio* Solution for judging (your "Solution") and complete a write-up of their work (collectively "Contribution"). Only one Contribution is allowed for each individual. To enter you must register for the contest at the SFTL003 - Intel® Parallel Studio Parallelism Contest and Lab at the Intel Developer Forum 2009. You will be asked to enter contact information so that Intel can contact you for contest announcements and prize distribution.  Your contact information will be treated in accordance with Intel's privacy policy which you can review here.  Your personal information will be used for contest administration purposes only.

When you are ready to submit your Contribution, you will submit it at the judging machine at the SFTL003 - Intel® Parallel Studio Parallelism Contest and Lab at the Intel Developer Forum 2009 .

By submitting your Contribution, you agree to be bound by the contest rules. If you do not agree to the terms of this contest, do not submit your contest Contribution.

Contributions must be received by 6pm midnight (U.S. Pacific Time) of Wednesday September 23, 2009

All Contributions must be the participant's original creation. A valid Contribution will modify the original application to retain correctness but increase either overall performance or core utilization as compared to the original application. It will describe how this was done using Intel(R) Parallel Studio in the write-up. The content of the Contribution modifications must not be subject to the rights of any third parties, other than Intel. The Contributions may not be offensive or otherwise unsuitable for use, as determined in Intel's sole discretion. Participants must comply with the SFTL003 - Intel® Parallel Studio Parallelism Contest and Lab at the Intel Developer Forum 2009 - Official Rules.

Any submission of robotic, automatic, or programmed entries, or any entries submitted through other unapproved methods are void.

Prizes, Criteria, and Odds

Award Categories:[AS1] :

1. Best overall performance improvement as measured by timethis.exe

2. Best core utilization as measured by the Concurrency Analysis feature of Intel® Amplifier in Intel® Parallel Studio on the Microsoft Visual Studio* solution.

3. Best use of Intel® Parallel Studio as measured by the number of components of Intel® Parallel Studio (Intel® Threading Building Blocks, Intel® Composer, Intel® Performance Primitives, Intel® Amplifier and Intel Inspector) used in tuning the application as documented in the write-up and in the Microsoft Visual Studio* solution.

      **Example write-up here 

Editing and refining a Contribution until 6pm PST Wednesday September 23, 2009 will be possible.[AS2]   The first 50  individuals submitting a valid entry (the original application is improved in either the overall performance improvement or best core utilization categories with Intel® Parallel Studio in the Microsoft Visual Studio* solution submitted) will receive a commercial license for Intel® Parallel Studio Retail Value $799.  The individual with the winning entry in each category will receive one (1) $250 (two hundred fifty US dollars) Visa gift card. In total three (3) $250 US dollars Visa gifts cards will be awarded, one for each category. Those cards can not be cashed in.

Except to the extent any of these prizes are prohibited by local law substitute prize of equal or greater value will be awarded.

All winners may get their work profiled on the Intel® Software Network site or at the Intel® Developer Forum.  

Selection of Winner

The Winner will be announced in the Intel® Booth on Thursday, Sept 24, 2009  at noon PST the Intel Developers Conference.  All decisions by the judges will be final.  The winner will be notified by phone, e-mail or post within seven days of the selection. All prizes will be awarded within six weeks of the date the competition closes. Submission of the Contribution constitutes permission to use the winner's name and/or likeness on the Web site for advertising/trade purposes without further compensation. Entrants may be required to sign an affidavit of compliance with these rules, a prize release, and a release for the use of his/her name, likeness or voice for publicity purposes by Intel. If prize notification is returned as undeliverable, or if potential winner fails to claim or accept prize within five calendar days of notification, disqualification may result and an alternate winner may be selected.  A list of winners will be posted on Intel® Parallel Studio Forum and will be available no later than 2 weeks after winner selection.

All the winning Contributions will be posted on the above-mentioned website and will be available approximately two weeks after the winner has been selected.

Legal Documents

Privacy Policy

Terms of Use

Intel® Parallel Studio Contest Web Site

SFTL003 - Intel® Parallel Studio Parallelism Contest and Lab at the Intel Developer Forum 2009  Rules

1.  These rules (including the Intel Privacy Policy and the www.intel.com Terms of Use) govern the SFTL003 - Intel® Parallel Studio Parallelism Contest and Lab at the Intel Developer Forum 2009 (the "contest") and set out the terms and conditions between Intel Corporation and its affiliates ("Intel" or "us/we") and each participant ("participant" or "you").

2.  You are eligible to participate in the contest if you have registered for the contest.

3. No purchase necessary. Purchase does not increase your chance of winning. Void wherever prohibited.

4.  You must speak, read and understand English and you must be aged 18 years or over or you must obtain the consent of your parents or legal guardian before you participate in the contest. If you apply to register for the contest, if you contribute to the contest or the Intel® SN community once you are registered or if you accept any contest prizes, you accept these rules. Employees of Intel Corporation, its affiliates, subsidiaries, advertising and promotion agencies, and the immediate families of each may not enter. This limitation is void where prohibited.

5.  The contest is open to participants worldwide. All national and local laws and regulations of the resident's country of residence apply. Residents of countries under U.S. embargo are not eligible to enter. The contest is void wherever else it is restricted or prohibited by law.

6.  We may refuse your Contribution for any good reason.

7.  Intel provides you with access to a variety of resources on Intel® SN, including communication forums, documentation, download areas, code samples, videos, blogs, articles and contests (the "resources").

8.  You agree to submit Contributions to the contest on www.intel.com/software under the following conditions:

a.  to participate in the  SFTL003 - Intel® Parallel Studio Parallelism Contest and Lab at the Intel Developer Forum 2009 You will be asked to download the third party software application listed above which will be subject to terms and conditions of these third party licenses. Installation, use and/or further distribution by You will be subject to such third party licenses. Intel expressly disclaims liability of any kind with respect to installation, use or distribution by You of any such third party software.

b.  Intel does not claim ownership of your Contributions to the contest in form of sample code, content, videos, articles or any other Contributions you submit to Intel® SN. By submitting your Contributions, you are granting Intel and its affiliated companies the following worldwide, non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, unconditional, fully paid-up rights:

(1) to make, have made, use, copy, reproduce, modify, and create derivative works of the Contributions,

(2) to publicly perform or display, import, broadcast, transmit, distribute (directly and indirectly through multiple tiers), license, offer to sell and sell, rent, lease, or lend copies of the Contributions (and derivative works thereof),

(3) to sublicense to third parties the foregoing rights, including the right to sublicense to further third parties, and

(4) to publish your name or alias in connection with this contest and your Contributions.

c.  Your Contributions to the contest will be available to other participants and to ensure they are safe and freely usable by other participants, you warrant that:

(1) you own or otherwise have all rights necessary for you to provide the Contributions and grant the rights described above and you do not disclose any information which would constitute a violation of a confidentiality obligation;
(2) your Contributions do not contain any viruses, worms, spy ware, or other components or instructions that are malicious, deceptive, or designed to limit or harm the functionality of a computer; and
(3) your Contributions are not subject to license terms that require any software or documentation incorporating or being derived from your Contributions to be licensed to others.

d.  Apart from prizes offered as part of the contest, no monetary compensation will be paid for any of your contest Contributions.

9.  Intel is not responsible for contest entries not received due to lost, failed, delayed or interrupted connections or miscommunications, or other electronic malfunctions. Intel is not responsible for incorrect or inaccurate entry information, whether caused by you or any other persons or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized in the contest.

10.  You may be required to sign and return releases of liability, declarations of eligibility, and where lawful, publicity consent agreements, within five (5) days of acknowledged notification. If a selected potential winner cannot be contacted, is ineligible (under these rules or due to a failure to comply with any of the other applicable policies, licenses, rules, and terms of service, fails to claim a prize, or fails to timely return the completed and executed releases/agreements as required), prize may be forfeited and an alternate potential winner may, at Intel's discretion, be selected. Physical prizes awarded for the winning Contributions will be sent to participants within six (6) weeks from the date of the notification email or confirmation of the winning participant's physical address, whichever is later.

11.  Prizes are personal to the participant submitting the winning Contribution and cannot normally be transferred. All prizes are subject to availability and they may change at any time and Intel may award substitute prizes of equal or greater value. A cash alternative is not available. Odds of winning depend on the total number of eligible entries received.

12.  The winner accepts responsibility for all federal, state and local taxes and fees in connection with the prizes. Taxes, if any, are the sole responsibility of the winning participant, and participants may be issued an IRS Form 1099 for the ARV of any awarded prize. This contest is void where prohibited or restricted by law, and subject to applicable federal, state provincial and local laws.

13.  Intel does not provide any warranty on the prizes. To the fullest extent allowable by law, Intel specifically disclaims any representations or warranties, express or implied, regarding the prizes, including any implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose and implied warranties arising from course of dealing or course of performance.

14.  We may, on notifying you, immediately suspend or terminate your rights, if you breach these rules or if we reasonably believe that you have submitted a Contribution in violation of these rules.

15. Intel reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to suspend or cancel the contest at any time for any reason.

16.  You can withdraw your Contribution at any time by notifying us. If a Contribution is withdrawn your rights to win a prize in this contest are lost.

17.  These rules apply to your Contribution and the resources, unless we provide any items to you under more specific terms, in which case those more specific terms will apply to the relevant items. We may make changes to these rules at any time without notice to you. The most current version of the rules can be reviewed on the Intel® SN website. Contributing to the contest or accepting prizes will constitute acceptance of the revised rules.

18.  Our only responsibilities with respect to the contest are set out in these rules. These rules prevail in the event of any conflict or inconsistency with any other communications, including advertising or promotional materials.

19.  For any feedback or questions regarding the contest or the prizes you can contact Intel by participating in the Contest Forum or sending an email to isn.support@intel.com .

20.  If Intel improperly denies you any prizes, Intel's entire liability and your sole and exclusive remedy will be limited to a distribution of the equivalent amount of prizes as set forth above. By participating in the contest, you waive any and all rights to bring any claim or action related to such matters in any forum beyond one (1) year after the first occurrence of the kind of act, event, condition or omission upon which the claim or action is based.

21.  If for any reason this contest is not capable of running as planned due to infection by computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures, or any other causes beyond the control of Intel which corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity, or proper conduct of this contest, Intel reserves the right at its sole discretion, to disqualify any individual who tampers with the entry or voting process, and to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the contest.

22.  Intel assumes no responsibility for any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to, or alteration of entries. Intel is not responsible for any problems or technical malfunction of any telephone network or telephone lines, computer online systems, servers, or providers, computer equipment, software, failure of any e-mail or entry to be received by Intel on account of technical problems, human error or traffic congestion on the internet or at any web site, or any combination thereof, including any injury or damage to participant's or any other person's computer relating to or resulting from participation in this contest or downloading any materials in this contest.

23.  The promoter of this contest is Intel. The contest is administered by:

Intel Corporation

2200 Mission College Blvd.

Santa Clara, CA 95052

USA

Intel and Intel Logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries.

*Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

© 2009, Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.

Can 15 technical high school students solve complex parallel programming challenges, typically reserved for advanced university courses? A three-day boot-camp hosted by the Intel® Academic Community and the Brooklyn Technical High School with industry experts and executives will put top programming students in New York City to the challenge through real-life experiences and interactive exercises.  32-core server technology will be provided by IBM and networking by BLADE Network Technologies.

Jeffrey M. Birnbaum, Managing Director, Global Head of Platform Solutions at Bank of America, has spent a considerable time exploring and implementing lock-free and parallel programming techniques for low latency high throughput messaging systems used in financial services applications, and knows there are not enough skilled programmers to meet industry demand. As a participant on the US Council on Competitiveness High Performance Computing Initiative, he noted the U.S. is falling behind in computer programming education, impacting U.S. competitiveness in the technology sector. Upon reading Threading Building Blocks by James Reinders, the idea of developers needing to change their mental approach to ‘think parallel’ resonated with Jeffrey. Shortly thereafter, he met with a talented high school student interested in software development who took an immediate interest to parallel programming concepts. From this, Jeffrey had the idea to introduce complex parallel programming techniques  -- typically reserved for advanced college or graduate coursework -- to high school students.

"If students start thinking parallel when they are first introduced to software development, it opens the door to new creative solutions that more experienced programmers might not attempt. In essence, the student minds have not been spoiled by old serial programming methodologies and experimentation when multi-core multi-socket systems did not exist," says Mr. Birnbaum.  “We are at the beginning of a new age in programming where the exploitation of advanced multi socket multicore systems to solve new and interesting problems requires developers who combine a "think parallel" mindset with the skill to execute."

Parallel processing is the simultaneous execution of the same task (split up and specially adapted) on multiple processors in order to obtain faster results. The parallel nature can come from a single machine with multiple processors or multiple machines connected together to form a cluster. Intel, IBM and BLADE have teamed up to demonstrate the power of parallel processing through single computers with multiple processors – or cores.  Parallel processing is used in a wide variety of applications, including space exploration, calculating business risk, molecular modeling, weather forecasting, galaxy modeling, oil and gas operations, evaluating financial derivatives, designing wireless networks, and in games.

Mr. Birnbaum asked Intel for help in implementing his vision.

Bob Chesebrough, Senior Course Architect with the Intel Academic Community built a collaborative team, with Jeffrey M. Birnbaum, and Randy Asher, Principal of the Brooklyn Technical High School and Vice President of the National Consortium for Specialized Secondary Schools of Math, Science & Technology to implement the clubhouse with top technical high school students in New York.

The 3-day boot-camp kicks off with interactive exercises using real world experiences (such as standing in lines at a store) to introduce students to parallel programming concepts including race conditions and for loops (see video guide to these challenges). Each day, students will also be given a Parallel Programming Puzzle to ponder, and discuss a real-world software developer solution the following day.

Instruction for the boot camp is being provided by Intel engineers and executives, using the latest software development tools, including Intel® Parallel Studio; and concludes with Jeffrey M. Birnbaum presenting on advanced lock-free programming techniques showcasing database applications running on a 32-core server system on loan from IBM, with high-performance Ethernet connectivity provided by BLADE Network Technologies. BLADE is hosting the servers in its world-class data center networking lab in Silicon Valley.

The curriculum is adapted from undergraduate and graduate materials created by the Intel Academic Community currently being implemented by professors at 1350 universities in 72 countries. This is the first time the curriculum has been adapted to the high school level.

“The coursework for this bootcamp is very challenging. We are giving the students exposure to real industry challenges, to plant the seed on how to approach programming in the future,” says Jeffrey M. Birnbaum.

Today’s high performance desktop computers are empowering a new generation of developers to employ parallel processing to solve complex problems without the need for multi-million dollar supercomputers or having to divide tasks across PC clusters. The confluence of lower cost, high performance computers and networks is a paradigm change in parallel processing engineering.

Fifteen students were hand selected by Randy Asher, Principal of the Brooklyn Technical High School -- the largest technical high School in the US -- based on the student's software programming focus and high achievement at the school. An additional student from Hunter Science High School will participate, as well as 6 selected teachers.

"There is a high level of enthusiasm and excitement from students who are participating in the Clubhouse. They are hungry for this type of training to give them a competitive advantage over their peers and a jump start at new programming techniques and developer tools. Our hope is these students will challenge university professors and old software development methodologies by developing scalable coding techniques and breakthrough parallel patterns," says Randy Asher.

• Intel in Education: http://intel.com/thinkparallel
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/intelsoftwarenetwork or http://bit.ly/ISNonFB
• Twitter:  @intelsoftware, @intelevents and @intelswblog
• YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/intelswnetwork
• Intel Software Network TV:  http://www.intel.com/software/tv or http://bit.ly/isntv
• Academic Videos: http://software.intel.com/en-us/videos/category/academic/1/1/
• Intel Academic Community: http://intel.com/software/academic
• Intel Parallel Programming & Multicore Community: http://intel.com/software/multicore

LINKS:

• Blade Network Technologies: http://www.bladenetwork.net
• Brooklyn Technical High School: http://www.bths.edu
• IBM: http://www.ibm.com
• Intel Academic Community: http://www.intel.com/thinkparallel
• National Consortium for Specialized Secondary Schools of Math, Science and Technology: http://www.ncsssmst.org/
• US Council on Competitiveness, High Performance Initiative: http://www.compete.org/about-us/initiatives/hpc

• Intel Smoke Demo: http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/smoke-game-technology-demo
• Intel Thread Like Wildfire Contest: http://www.intel.com/software/thread-like-wildfire
• Intel® Parallel Studio: http://software.intel.com/en-us/intel-parallel-studio-home/
• Networking for High Performance Computing (HPC): http://www.bladenetwork.net/hpc