Introducing Students to MapReduce using Phoenix++

This page authored by Suzanne J. Matthews, United States Military Academy, based on the Phoenix++ MapReduce library developed by Christos Kozyrakis at Stanford University.

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Initial Publication Date: August 16, 2016

Summary

Phoenix++ is a shared memory implementation of MapReduce that can leverage multicore architectures. As a result, it is a very useful way to introduce students to MapReduce, and demonstrate speedup with the paradigm. This module provides a gentle introduction to MapReduce and the Phoenix++ MapReduce framework. Students trace through a simplified version of the the word_count application provided with Phoenix++, and complete simple exercises to benchmark and modify the code.

Module Characteristics

Languages Supported: , , C++, ,
Relevant Parallel Computing Concepts: , Task Parallelism, , Shared Memory,
Recommended Teaching Level: Introductory, Intermediate,
Possible Course Use: , Computational Theory, , , Operating Systems,

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Learning Goals

Describe the motivation for MapReduce and automated parallel frameworks.
Explain how a simple problem (Word Count) is parallelized using MapReduce.
Trace through the Phoenix++ Word Count example.
Use Phoenix++ MapReduce to yield speedups on a shared memory system.