Portable Parallel Computing with the Raspberry Pi

Abstract

With the requirement that parallel & distributed computing (PDC) topics be covered in the core computer science curriculum, educators are exploring new ways to engage students in this area of computing. In this paper, we discuss the use of the Raspberry Pi single-board computer (SBC) to provide students with hands-on multicore learning experiences. We discuss how the authors use the Raspberry Pi to teach parallel computing, and present assessment results that indicate such devices are effective at achieving CS2013 PDC learning outcomes, as well as motivating further study of parallelism. We believe our results are of significant interest to CS educators looking to integrate parallelism in their classrooms, and support the use of other SBCs for teaching parallel computing.