[10:30] Exploring the HPC Fringe: Alternatives to MPI

This seminar will provide an overview of some of the less well-known frameworks for parallel programming, all of which hold out the promise of more streamlined development…usually for a price. How practical are these frameworks for development right now, or in the near future? What trade-offs are involved in embracing them? What traps lie in wait for those who stumble around blindly?

We will attempt to answer these questions in a discussion format after brief presentations. Each presentation will: provide a brief overview of the framework, attempt to place it in context with the more commonly used tools such as OpenMP and MPI, and provide some initial commentary as a starting point for discussion and questions.

The following frameworks are currently scheduled for consideration:

UPC (Unified Parallel C)
A language extension to C providing a uniform interface for distributing data structures in programming both shared memory and cluster-based systems

Fortress
SUN Microsystem’s attempt to modernize the FORTRAN language, retaining the numerical richness of FORTRAN while adding better support for data abstraction and parallel programming, something for which the older FORTRAN variants are not always-well suited.

Co-Array FORTRAN
A language extension to FORTRAN95 to better abstract the process of data decomposition across workers in a parallel cluster environment.