Object-oriented analysis and design of the Message Passing Interface

The major contribution of this paper is the application of modern analysis techniques to the important Message Passing Interface standard, work done in order to obtain information useful in designing both application programmer interfaces for objectoriented languages, and message passing systems. Recognition of \Design Patterns" within MPI is an important discernment of this work. A further contribution is a comparative discussion of the design and evolution of three actual object-oriented designs for the Message Passing Interface (MPI-1) application programmer interface (API), two of which have in uenced the standardization of C++ explicit parallel programming with MPI-2, and which strongly indicate the value of a priori object-oriented design and analysis of such APIs. Knowledge of design patterns is assumed herein. Discussion provided here includes systems developed at Mississippi State University (MPI++), the University of Notre Dame (OOMPI), and the merger of these systems that results in a standard binding within theMPI-2 standard. Commentary concerning additional opportunities for further object-oriented analysis and design of message passing systems and APIs, such as MPI-2 and MPI/RT are mentioned in conclusion. Connection of modern software design and engineering principles to High Performance Computing programming approaches is a new and important further contribution of this work. Work at the University of Notre Dame was supported by National Science Foundation cooperative grants CCR94-22380 and CCR94-22381. Support for work at Mississippi State University supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) through the U. S. Air Force Research Laboratory under contract F30602-96-1-0329, and with additional support from the National Science Foundation, Early Career Program, ASC-95-01917. Submitted to Concurrency: Practice & Experience, July, 1998. yCorresponding author: +1-601-325-8435, FAX: +1-601-325-8997. zPresent address, Stanford Linear Accelerator, Stanford, CA.