In the not too distant future, every researcher and professional in science and engineering fields will have to understand parallel and distributed computing. With hyperthreading in Intel processors, hypertransport links in AMD processors, multi-core silicon in today's high-end microprocessors from IBM and emerging cluster and grid computing, parallel and distributed computers have moved into the mainstream of computing. To fully exploit these advances in computer architectures, researchers and professionals must start to design parallel or distributed software, systems and algorithms for their scientific and engineering applications. Parallel and distributed scientific and engineering computing has become a key technology which will play an important part in determining, or at least shaping, future research and development activities in many academic and industrial branches. This book reports on the recent important advances in the area of parallel and distributed computing for science and engineering applications.Included in the book are selected papers from prestigious workshops such as PACT-SHPSEC, IPDPS-PDSECA and ICPP-HPSECA together with some invited papers from prominent researchers around the world. The book is divided into five main sections. These chapters not only provide novel ideas, new experimental results and handful experience in this field, but also stimulate the future research activities in the area of parallel and distributed computing for science and engineering applications.

Xiaohua Hu, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Computer Science in the College of Information Science and Technology at Drexel University. His research has been published in such journals as IEEE Computer, Knowledge and Information Systems, Journal of Intelligent Systems, and the International Journal of Applied Intelligence. Yi Pan, PhD, is Chair and Professor of Computer Science at Georgia State University. His pioneering work in computing using reconfigurable optical buses has been cited by researchers around the world. Dr. Pan is co-holder of three United States patents (pending) and five