In recent years, a trend has been to use general-purpose personal computers and workstations interconnected by a fast computer network in order to realize a low-cost supercomputer (this type of system is referred to as a cluster). In addition, larger configurationsinvolving computers interconnected through the Internet (via wide area networks) have also been used to realize supercomputing on a massive scale by utilizing idle personal computers and workstations (idle processing resources) – this is referred to as grid computing. However, in order to effectively utilize cluster and grid computers, new parallel programming methods and tools have to be learned and used. Thus, this course will not only teach general parallel programming concepts, but also concepts and tools necessary for the effective utilization of cluster and grid computers.