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Libraries

Libraries

• Utilities and gui libraries
  • MOTIF and X11

  • TCL and TK

• Communication libraries
  • MPI

  • PVM and XPVM

  • CHIMP

  • Linda

  • P4

  • PICL

MOTIF and X11

• A common interface on all the cluster machines e.g. Motif and X11.

• REFERENCES:
  • Motif vendors can be obtained from - URL - http://freedom.lm.com/motif_vendors.html

  • Freeware - URL - file://wais.com/pub/freeware/

  • Getting X11R6 - URL - http://www.x.org/consortium/GettingX11R6.html

• X WINDOW SYSTEM, Version 11, Release 6 is not in the public domain, but is freely available.
  • No license is required and there are no royalties;

  • vendors are actively encouraged to base products on this software and on the standards defined by the X Consortium.

• Sites that have network file transfer ability can retrieve the release from the network location nearest them E.g.
  • Canterbury, Kent, UK, ftp.britain.eu.net pub/X11R6

  • London, UK, src.doc.ic.ac.uk, /packages/X11R6

TCL and TK

• TCL/TK is a programming system developed by John Ousterhout at the University of California, Berkeley

• It is easy to use, and has very useful graphical interface facilities.
  • TCL - the basic programming language

  • TK - ToolKit of widgets i.e. graphical objects similar to those of other GUI toolkits eg Xlib, Xview and Motif.

• It is not necessary to use C or C++ in order to manipulate the widgets

• Useful applications can be built very rapidly once familiar with TCL/TK system.

• TCL language is normally interpreted, so TCL applications will normally not run as fast as equivalent C programs

PVM & XPVM

• PVM, Parallel Virtual Machine, is a software library system

• Enables a collection of heterogeneous computers to be used as a flexible, concurrent computational resource

• Portable i.e. the source, has been compiled on everything from laptops to CRAYs.

• XPVM is a graphical console and monitor for PVM - requires TCL and TK for the GUI

• How to obtain the software -
  • PVM files can be obtained by anonymous ftp to ftp.netlib.org. Look in directory pvm3.

  • XPVM is a public domain software package, and is available via Netlib in the pvm3/xpvm subdirectory at netlib@ornl.gov

MPI

• MPI, Message Passing Interface, has been proposed as a standard for writing message passing programs

• Establishes a practical, portable, efficient and flexible standard for message passing.

• Local Area Multicomputer (LAM) is a non-proprietary platform for users to evaluate and begin developing MPI applications.
  • LAM is a full cluster computing environment which fully implements the final draft of the MPI standard, version 1.0.

  • Support for PVM applications is provided through a library which also includes debugging commands to examine the PVM synchronization status of processes and messages.

• LAM Key Features
  • full MPI implementation

  • PVM compatibility

  • heterogeneous networks

  • extensive hands-on monitoring and control

  • parallel I/O

  • freely available under a GNU license - LAM was developed at the Ohio Supercomputer Center and is freely available via anonymous ftp from tbag.osc.edu

CHIMP

• CHIMP (Common High-level Interface to Message Passing) project from the EPCC
  (Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre - University of Edinburgh, Scotland).

• CHIMP provides a basic message passing system for the transfer of single messages between end points.

• CHIMP has both blocking and non-blocking communications, multicasting and message selection.

• The interface is available in both C and Fortran language bindings.

• Availability: CHIMP is available from anonymous ftp from: epcc.ed.ac.uk in directory /pub/chimp.

Linda

• Linda is a parallel programming language created by extending a sequential language, C or Fortran, with six additional statements.

• Information is exchanged via a mechanism known as "tuple space".

• Programs modified to use Linda execute on a variety of parallel architectures including workstation clusters.

• Availability: Commercially available from: Scientific Computing Associates Inc., 1 Century Tower, 265 Church Street, New Haven, CT 06510-0710

P4

• The P4 parallel programming library consists of macros and subroutines for writing shared-memory and message passing programs in both C and FORTRAN.

• It can be used to program networks of workstations, advanced parallel supercomputers, and single shared-memory multiprocessors.

• Availability: The complete distribution may be obtained by anonymous ftp from info.mcs.anal.gov in the directory pub/p4.

PICL

• PICL - Portable Instrumented Communications Library

• PICL is a subroutine library used to develop parallel programs that are portable across distributed memory architectures.

• PICL provides executions tracing which can be used to monitor performance or aid debugging.

• Availability: available from netlib@ornl.gov