Newsgroups: comp.parallel.pvm
From: Mark_Richardson <mr@pac.soton.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: PVM on shared memory computers ?
Organization: Parallel Applications Centre
Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 16:17:29 +0100
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Message-ID: <31A1DE89.41C6@pac.soton.ac.uk>

Hello Bela,
Yes it is possible to run pvm on shared memory machines. You have to
trick it into believing it has more than one processor. Use an
environment variable to tell the code to over-ride the return from
pvmfconfig. (or pvm_config for you C doods)
Performance is abismal though. Try implementing the vendors shared
memory libraries instead. 

Many people would think you are mad for doing such a thing. Some vendors
would say "use the compiler options". But we know what we want don't we?
MarkR
P.S. there is something in our manual (3.3.4) for SHMEM library on SGIMP
architectures.(Now where did I put that manual?)

Bela Ban wrote:
> 
> Hi !
> 
> I read in the PVM's Users's Guide that PVM is only available on
> distributed-memory computers. Can someone tell me what would prevent PVM
> from being run on shared-memory computers ? I even think there is the
> advantage of sharing data structures rather than having to send data
> (including marshalling / unmarshalling ) between processes !
> 
> Is there a PVM implementation for shared-memory computers available ?
> 
> Sorry if this question has already been asked, but I couldn't find any
> answer yet (not in the manual)...
> 
> --
> Regards,
> Bela Ban, IBM Zurich Research Laboratory
> CH-8803 Rueschlikon/Switzerland
> email: bba@zurich.ibm.com   (ban@ifi.unizh.ch),
> http://www.zurich.ibm.com/~bba/

