Newsgroups: comp.parallel.mpi
From: brunner@mandrake.think.com (Eric Brunner)
Subject: Re: parallel I/O
Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge MA, USA
Date: 18 Aug 1996 19:50:50 GMT
Message-ID: <4v7s6q$ngv@bone.think.com>

Joel Clark (joel@ssd.intel.com) wrote:
: In article <3211E50C.62DA@gte.com> Bin Li <bli@gte.com> writes:
: >I learned that MPI is goning to support parallel I/O.
: >
: >Thank you.

: Not quite right.

: The standards committee is considering adding parallel I/O to
: future MPI standards.  It is possible parallel I/O will not be 
: added to future versions of the MPI standards.  It may be that 
: MPI implementors decide not to implement parallel I/O even if it 
: is added to a future MPI standard version.

Somehow I think that the question of how the MPI2 Forum works was
not quite what Bin Li had in mind. Perhaps Forum Mechanics could
be addressed in a distinct thread (different tid and all), so as
not to obscure the question of what COTS boxes with COTS wires can
mean, modulo the inevitable "de minimus added bit" of software, for
mpi service producers and consumers.

When the new thread is started, re: MPI2 Forum and MPI-IO, I'll be
sure to differ with my learned colleage from Oregon, since neither
myself, nor some other vendors would have remained at the table two
meetings (of the Forum) past had the clear intent of the IO group
and the main MPI group not been to write something useful. Just how
normative Forum documents are is another matter altogether.

--
Kitakitamatsinohpowaw,
Eric Brunner
Principal Engineer, Communications Group
Thinking Machines
14 Crosby Drive
Bedford, MA 01730
voice: (617) 276-0400 x2888
fax:   (617) 276-0444

