5.1. Introduction
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MPI-1 provides an interface that allows processes in a parallel program to communicate with one another. MPI-1 specifies neither how the processes are created, nor how they establish communication. Moreover, an MPI-1 application is static; that is, no processes can be added to or deleted from an application after it has been started.
MPI users have asked that the MPI-1 model be extended to allow process creation and management after an MPI application has been started. A major impetus comes from the PVM [7] research effort, which has provided a wealth of experience with process management and resource control that illustrates their benefits and potential pitfalls.
The MPI Forum decided not to address resource control in MPI-2 because it was not able to design a portable interface that would be appropriate for the broad spectrum of existing and potential resource and process controllers. Resource control can encompass a wide range of abilities, including adding and deleting nodes from a virtual parallel machine, reserving and scheduling resources, managing compute partitions of an MPP, and returning information about available resources. MPI-2 assumes that resource control is provided externally --- probably by computer vendors, in the case of tightly coupled systems, or by a third party software package when the environment is a cluster of workstations.
The reasons for adding process management to MPI are both technical and practical. Important classes of message passing applications require process control. These include task farms, serial applications with parallel modules, and problems that require a run-time assessment of the number and type of processes that should be started. On the practical side, users of workstation clusters who are migrating from PVM to MPI may be accustomed to using PVM's capabilities for process and resource management. The lack of these features is a practical stumbling block to migration.
While process management is essential, adding it to MPI should not compromise the portability or performance of MPI applications. In particular:
- The MPI-2 process model must apply to the vast majority of current parallel environments. These include everything from tightly integrated MPPs to heterogeneous networks of workstations.
- MPI must not take over operating system responsibilities.
It should instead provide a clean interface between an application
and system software.
- MPI must continue to guarantee communication determinism, i.e.,
process management must not introduce unavoidable race
conditions.
- MPI must not contain features that compromise performance.
- MPI-1 programs must work under MPI-2, i.e., the MPI-1
static process model must be a special case of the MPI-2 dynamic
model.
The MPI-2 process management model addresses these issues in two ways. First, MPI remains primarily a communication library. It does not manage the parallel environment in which a parallel program executes, though it provides a minimal interface between an application and external resource and process managers.
Second, MPI-2 does not change the concept of communicator. Once a communicator is built, it behaves as specified in MPI-1. A communicator is never changed once created, and it is always created using deterministic collective operations.
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MPI-2.0 of July 18, 1997
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