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PRNG tutorial: request for comments

I wrote a tutorial a couple months ago on programming models for shared-memory concurrent pseudorandom number generation:

http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~mhoemmen/cs194/Tutorials/prng.pdf

It was meant for upper-division computer science undergraduates, but I was wondering if you all think it has potential to be adapted for more general use.

The article argues for making PRNGs efficiently thread-safe by choice of programming model, and offers examples of how different kinds of parallel PRNGs fit into the offered models.

mfh

By Mark Hoemmen at 2007-10-25 16:15 | LtU Forum | previous forum topic | next forum topic | other blogs | 6530 reads

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Briefly, yes. I think it's

Briefly, yes. I think it's a good and straightforward illustration that both:

  1. programming in a functional style aids thread-safety
  2. the best way to write efficient threaded programs is often to minimize sharing/communication between threads
By mental at Thu, 2007-10-25 19:06 | login or register to post comments

mhf - My deepest sympathies

mhf -

My deepest sympathies to those _advanced_ students of yours who have to bear with being told (in a footnote!) that the singular of "dice" is "die".

By bigint at Fri, 2007-10-26 11:11 | login or register to post comments

Ha!

bigint -- ha! ;-P Well, I mainly included it for readers who aren't native English speakers. A significant fraction of undergrads here aren't. They probably all know it, but I'd rather reach under their comprehension rather than over it, especially if it's a point that takes so little space to explain.

By Mark Hoemmen at Fri, 2007-10-26 15:58 | login or register to post comments