Recent Enhancements to PVM

Recent Enhancements to PVM

Adam Beguelin
Carnegie Mellon University, and
Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center

Jack Dongarra
University of Tennessee, and
Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Al Geist
Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Robert Manchek
University of Tennessee

Vaidy Sunderam
Emory University

Abstract:

This paper presents new features of PVM, a popular standard for writing parallel programs which execute over networks of heterogeneous machines. Although PVM has become an important infrastructure for parallel programmers, we continue to develop the system based both on user feedback and our own research interests. In this paper we present new communications routines and briefly characterize their performance. We describe new extensible services that allow advanced users to customize certain aspects of the default PVM functionality. An overview of shared memory PVM optimizations is presented. We also describe PVM's new tracing facility and a graphical console which utilizes this capability. Finally, we discuss future extensions to PVM which are under investigation.

Jack Dongarra
Sun Dec 18 11:30:23 EST 1994