Structured parallel programming using MPI

Abstract

Message Passing Interface (MPI), as an effort to unify message passing systems to achieve portability, defines a widely used standard for writing message-passing programs. But MPI alone operates on a rather system-oriented level and does not provide higher abstractions that are mandatory when developing complex message passing applications. As a result, a programming environment is necessary that not only addresses MPI but also provides programmer-oriented abstractions for the core problems of parallel programs, i.e. management of process, data, and communication. In this paper, we present our on-going approach — PEMPI¹, an integrated programming environment on top of MPI, which allows the application programmer to work within the context of the higher-level functions (to solve regular problems) but also to jump into the system level, i.e., MPI level (to solve irregular or performance-critical problems) if necessary. In PEMPI a programmer can obtain portability by employing MPI standard; achieve performance through the machine best-fit implementation; and increase programmability by exploiting higher abstractions and taking advantage of supporting tools.