Scalable libraries in a heterogeneous environment

Abstract

This paper concerns itself with efforts to extend multicomputer libraries to a hierarchical, heterogeneous network environment. Two classes of support for such libraries are discussed: first, the message-passing features needed to establish groups of communicating processes, and communication contexts within which libraries can safely work. Second, it discusses message-passing primitives that encapsulate heterogeneity, hiding it from the user program (and library alike), and eliminating it when it proves unnecessary (within a homogeneous invocation, for instance). The multicomputer toolbox first-generation scalable libraries, and zipcode message-passing systems are the means by which the author demonstrates his research, so they are discussed. He relates zipcode syntax and semantics to the emerging MPI standard, when appropriate Author(s) Skjellum, A. Dept. of Comput. Sci., Mississippi State Univ., MS, USA