Newsgroups: comp.parallel.mpi
From: Israel Gale <gale@wind.hpc.pko.dec.com>
Reply-To: gale@hpc.pko.dec.com
Subject: Re: help w/fortran
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Date: 17 Oct 1996 10:44:31 -0400
Message-ID: <w3lsp7d4pm8.fsf@wind.hpc.pko.dec.com>

Brian Barr <barrb@sun.soe.clarkson.edu> writes:

> I am new to this field and would like information on software that helps
> parallelize existing fortran programs.  I have a finite difference
> scheme that would lend itself to multiple processors with a little help.

You probably want to use HPF (High Performance Fortran).  In HPF, you add
directives to your Fortran program telling how you want your computation
distributed across processors.  The compiler automates any message passing
that is needed.

HPF compilers are now available for all Unix platforms, and some high-end
PC configurations.  Performance varies widely depending on the compiler
vendor.  The best compilers perform excellently (comparable to well-tuned
MPI).  The worst compilers perform poorly.  Send private e-mail if you
want me to name names.

Obviously, with any parallel program, you'll have the best success if you
have good parallel hardware.  This means either a fast network switch or
some other high-speed interconnect, or else a multi-processor machine.

For lists of HPF compilers (both free and commercial), see:

http://www.irisa.fr/pampa/HPF/survey.html#compilers
http://www.ac.upc.es/~torres/HPFSurvey/Welcome.html


For HPF tutorials, see:

http://www.cs.rice.edu/~chk/hpf-tutorial.html
http://www.tc.cornell.edu/~bergmark/HPFstuff/HPFstuff.html
http://www.digital.com/info/hpc/fortran/users.html


For the official HPF Language Specification, see:

http://www.crpc.rice.edu/HPFF/home.html

-Israel Gale
 gale@hpc.pko.dec.com

