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| <div><h2 class="title"> |
| <a name="mpi"></a>Chapter 12. Boost.MPI</h2></div> |
| <div><div class="author"><h3 class="author"> |
| <span class="firstname">Douglas</span> <span class="surname">Gregor</span> |
| </h3></div></div> |
| <div><div class="author"><h3 class="author"> |
| <span class="firstname">Matthias</span> <span class="surname">Troyer</span> |
| </h3></div></div> |
| <div><p class="copyright">Copyright © 2005-2007 Douglas Gregor, |
| Matthias Troyer, Trustees of Indiana University</p></div> |
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| <a name="id2000038"></a><p> |
| Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See accompanying |
| file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at <a href="http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt" target="_top"> |
| http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt </a>) |
| </p> |
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| <div class="toc"> |
| <p><b>Table of Contents</b></p> |
| <dl> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi.html#mpi.intro">Introduction</a></span></dt> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/getting_started.html">Getting started</a></span></dt> |
| <dd><dl> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/getting_started.html#mpi.mpi_impl">MPI Implementation</a></span></dt> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/getting_started.html#mpi.config">Configure and Build</a></span></dt> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/getting_started.html#mpi.installation">Installing and Using Boost.MPI</a></span></dt> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/getting_started.html#mpi.testing">Testing Boost.MPI</a></span></dt> |
| </dl></dd> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/tutorial.html">Tutorial</a></span></dt> |
| <dd><dl> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/tutorial.html#mpi.point_to_point">Point-to-Point communication</a></span></dt> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/tutorial.html#mpi.collectives">Collective operations</a></span></dt> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/tutorial.html#mpi.communicators">Managing communicators</a></span></dt> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/tutorial.html#mpi.skeleton_and_content">Separating structure from content</a></span></dt> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/tutorial.html#mpi.performance_optimizations">Performance optimizations</a></span></dt> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/tutorial.html#mpi.c_mapping">Mapping from C MPI to Boost.MPI</a></span></dt> |
| </dl></dd> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html">Reference</a></span></dt> |
| <dd><dl> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#header.boost.mpi_hpp">Header <boost/mpi.hpp></a></span></dt> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#header.boost.mpi.allocator_hpp">Header <boost/mpi/allocator.hpp></a></span></dt> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#header.boost.mpi.collectives_hpp">Header <boost/mpi/collectives.hpp></a></span></dt> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#header.boost.mpi.collectives_fwd_hpp">Header <boost/mpi/collectives_fwd.hpp></a></span></dt> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#header.boost.mpi.communicator_hpp">Header <boost/mpi/communicator.hpp></a></span></dt> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#header.boost.mpi.config_hpp">Header <boost/mpi/config.hpp></a></span></dt> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#header.boost.mpi.datatype_hpp">Header <boost/mpi/datatype.hpp></a></span></dt> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#header.boost.mpi.datatype_fwd_hpp">Header <boost/mpi/datatype_fwd.hpp></a></span></dt> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#header.boost.mpi.environment_hpp">Header <boost/mpi/environment.hpp></a></span></dt> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#header.boost.mpi.exception_hpp">Header <boost/mpi/exception.hpp></a></span></dt> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#header.boost.mpi.graph_communicator_hpp">Header <boost/mpi/graph_communicator.hpp></a></span></dt> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#header.boost.mpi.group_hpp">Header <boost/mpi/group.hpp></a></span></dt> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#header.boost.mpi.intercommunicator_hpp">Header <boost/mpi/intercommunicator.hpp></a></span></dt> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#header.boost.mpi.nonblocking_hpp">Header <boost/mpi/nonblocking.hpp></a></span></dt> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#header.boost.mpi.operations_hpp">Header <boost/mpi/operations.hpp></a></span></dt> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#header.boost.mpi.packed_iarchive_hpp">Header <boost/mpi/packed_iarchive.hpp></a></span></dt> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#header.boost.mpi.packed_oarchive_hpp">Header <boost/mpi/packed_oarchive.hpp></a></span></dt> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#header.boost.mpi.python_hpp">Header <boost/mpi/python.hpp></a></span></dt> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#header.boost.mpi.request_hpp">Header <boost/mpi/request.hpp></a></span></dt> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#header.boost.mpi.skeleton_and_content_hpp">Header <boost/mpi/skeleton_and_content.hpp></a></span></dt> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#header.boost.mpi.skeleton_and_content_fwd_hpp">Header <boost/mpi/skeleton_and_content_fwd.hpp></a></span></dt> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#header.boost.mpi.status_hpp">Header <boost/mpi/status.hpp></a></span></dt> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/reference.html#header.boost.mpi.timer_hpp">Header <boost/mpi/timer.hpp></a></span></dt> |
| </dl></dd> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/python.html">Python Bindings</a></span></dt> |
| <dd><dl> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/python.html#mpi.python_quickstart">Quickstart</a></span></dt> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/python.html#mpi.python_user_data">Transmitting User-Defined Data</a></span></dt> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/python.html#mpi.python_collectives">Collectives</a></span></dt> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/python.html#mpi.python_skeleton_content">Skeleton/Content Mechanism</a></span></dt> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/python.html#mpi.python_compatbility">C++/Python MPI Compatibility</a></span></dt> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/python.html#mpi.pythonref">Reference</a></span></dt> |
| </dl></dd> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/design.html">Design Philosophy</a></span></dt> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/performance.html">Performance Evaluation</a></span></dt> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/history.html">Revision History</a></span></dt> |
| <dt><span class="section"><a href="mpi/acknowledge.html">Acknowledgments</a></span></dt> |
| </dl> |
| </div> |
| <div class="section"> |
| <div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"> |
| <a name="mpi.intro"></a>Introduction</h2></div></div></div> |
| <p> |
| Boost.MPI is a library for message passing in high-performance parallel applications. |
| A Boost.MPI program is one or more processes that can communicate either via |
| sending and receiving individual messages (point-to-point communication) or |
| by coordinating as a group (collective communication). Unlike communication |
| in threaded environments or using a shared-memory library, Boost.MPI processes |
| can be spread across many different machines, possibly with different operating |
| systems and underlying architectures. |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| Boost.MPI is not a completely new parallel programming library. Rather, it |
| is a C++-friendly interface to the standard Message Passing Interface (<a href="http://www-unix.mcs.anl.gov/mpi/" target="_top">MPI</a>), the most popular library |
| interface for high-performance, distributed computing. MPI defines a library |
| interface, available from C, Fortran, and C++, for which there are many <a href="http://www-unix.mcs.anl.gov/mpi/implementations.html" target="_top">MPI implementations</a>. |
| Although there exist C++ bindings for MPI, they offer little functionality |
| over the C bindings. The Boost.MPI library provides an alternative C++ interface |
| to MPI that better supports modern C++ development styles, including complete |
| support for user-defined data types and C++ Standard Library types, arbitrary |
| function objects for collective algorithms, and the use of modern C++ library |
| techniques to maintain maximal efficiency. |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| At present, Boost.MPI supports the majority of functionality in MPI 1.1. The |
| thin abstractions in Boost.MPI allow one to easily combine it with calls to |
| the underlying C MPI library. Boost.MPI currently supports: |
| </p> |
| <div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" type="disc"> |
| <li class="listitem"> |
| Communicators: Boost.MPI supports the creation, destruction, cloning, and |
| splitting of MPI communicators, along with manipulation of process groups. |
| </li> |
| <li class="listitem"> |
| Point-to-point communication: Boost.MPI supports point-to-point communication |
| of primitive and user-defined data types with send and receive operations, |
| with blocking and non-blocking interfaces. |
| </li> |
| <li class="listitem"> |
| Collective communication: Boost.MPI supports collective operations such |
| as <code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="boost/mpi/reduce.html" title="Function reduce">reduce</a></code> |
| and <code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="boost/mpi/gather.html" title="Function gather">gather</a></code> |
| with both built-in and user-defined data types and function objects. |
| </li> |
| <li class="listitem"> |
| MPI Datatypes: Boost.MPI can build MPI data types for user-defined types |
| using the <a href="http://www.boost.org/libs/serialization/doc" target="_top">Boost.Serialization</a> |
| library. |
| </li> |
| <li class="listitem"> |
| Separating structure from content: Boost.MPI can transfer the shape (or |
| "skeleton") of complexc data structures (lists, maps, etc.) and |
| then separately transfer their content. This facility optimizes for cases |
| where the data within a large, static data structure needs to be transmitted |
| many times. |
| </li> |
| </ul></div> |
| <p> |
| Boost.MPI can be accessed either through its native C++ bindings, or through |
| its alternative, <a class="link" href="mpi/python.html" title="Python Bindings">Python interface</a>. |
| </p> |
| </div> |
| </div> |
| <table xmlns:rev="http://www.cs.rpi.edu/~gregod/boost/tools/doc/revision" width="100%"><tr> |
| <td align="left"><p><small>Last revised: November 10, 2010 at 00:44:53 GMT</small></p></td> |
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