@TechReport{Dartmouth:TR96-293,
  author = {Thomas H. Cormen and Melissa Hirschl},
  title = {{Early Experiences in Evaluating the Parallel Disk Model with the ViC* Implementation}},
  institution = {Dartmouth College, Computer Science},
  address = {Hanover, NH},
  number = {PCS-TR96-293},
  year = {1996},
  month = {September},
  URL = {http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/reports/TR96-293.ps.Z},
  comment = {
    Revised version appeared in Parallel Computing 23(4), June 1997.  
    Original version August 7, 1996; revised version September 6, 1996.
  },
  abstract = {
    Although several algorithms have been developed for the Parallel Disk
    Model (PDM), few have been implemented.  Consequently, little has been
    known about the accuracy of the PDM in measuring I/O time and total
    time to perform an out-of-core computation.  This paper analyzes
    timing results on a uniprocessor with several disks for two PDM
    algorithms, out-of-core radix sort and BMMC permutations, to determine
    the strengths and weaknesses of the PDM.
    	The results indicate the following.  First, good PDM
    algorithms are usually not I/O bound.  Second, of the four PDM
    parameters, two (problem size and memory size) are good indicators of
    I/O time and running time, but the other two (block size and number of
    disks) are not.  Third, because PDM algorithms tend not to be I/O
    bound, asynchronous I/O effectively hides I/O times.
    	The software interface to the PDM is part of the ViC* run-time
    library.  The interface is a set of wrappers that are designed to be
    both efficient and portable across several parallel file systems and
    target machines.
  }
}