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Abstract: In this paper, we describe a number of early efforts to make use of the Message Passing Interface (MPI) standard in real applications. An informal survey, described herein, was posted by the authors on common USENet groups as well as to common MPI mailing lists. The responses contained here represent all but one the responses received; it is not exhaustive, but rather represents those researchers who were willing to respond during a limited period of time (about two weeks). Rather than a definitive statement of MPI development work, this paper restricts itself to describing the initial successes, progress, and impressions of application developers have with MPI, according to the responses received (many other projects, not described here, are also evidently on-going). An understanding of message-passing, and access to the MPI standard are prerequisites for appreciating this paper. We summarize the important aspects of each response, and draw conclusions about the spread of MPI into applications. Clearly, studying the state of MPI application development is on-going: here, we demonstrate that it is well underway, and that it has breadth in the type of applications, and the target architectures.
Authors: Anthony Skjellum, MS-State University; Ewing Lusk, ANL and William Gropp, ANL.