A new Open MP programming interface being supported by the major system vendors is expected to accelerate the uptake of parallel programming techniques on low-cost shared memory multiprocessor systems. The API should make it easier for ISVs to write scientific and engineering applications with components that can be processed simultaneously. Open MP is based upon techniques developed independently by Cray Research Inc and Kuck & Associates Inc and is said to be much less labor-intensive and more flexible than current parallel programming techniques, such as MPI message passing interface or Posix threads, which require expert programming knowledge. While Compaq, DEC, IBM, HP, Sun, Intel and Cray parent Silicon Graphics will each endorse Open MP, Kuck says the obvious use of Open MP is for writing parallel processing applications that will run on the new breed of low- cost Intel-based SMP boxes. It’s no coincidence that Intel’s forthcoming IA-64 Merced chip utilizes what is dubbed EPIC explicit parallelism techniques to process instructions faster than is possible on existing chips and that specially-developed compilers from Edinburgh Portable Compilers Ltd and others will exploit EPIC using parallel technology from Kuck (CI No 3,265). The Champaign, Illinois-based software tools and consultancy believes that if a company spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on a Sun, SGI or IBM workstation it will likely retain specialists to write and maintain MPI or other parallel code. That expenditure simply won’t make sense for a $15,000 Merced system. Kuck will rent a Kap Pro Toolset for Open MP priced at $1,000 a year upwards that it says will enable ISVs to create parallel versions of serial application code for Intel (Unix and NT), SGI, DEC (Unix and NT) and Sparc. It will write HP and IBM versions if it sees any demand. The Toolset implements Open MP’s dozen or so ‘directives,’ which tell the compiler how to schedule instructions for processing in parallel on multiple processors. Open MP also enables ISVs to recompile a single source program for multiple chipsets without losing the inherent parallelism. In future Kuck expects vendors to pre-bundle Open MP-enabled compilers from EPC and others with their systems, providing a broad base of platforms it and other parallel tools companies can target. The initial version of Open MP can be used to write Fortran applications on any form of shared memory system Kuck says. A C language version is in the works, as well as an implementation for distributed parallel or so-called shared nothing architectures. Kuck, SGI, DEC, IBM, Compaq and Intel have created an Open MP Council to oversee future development of the API; Sun and HP have been invited to participate. ISVs including Ansys, Adina, Absoft, Fluent, Livermore Software Technology, Mecalog Sarl and Oxford Molecular are supporting Open MP.
