Newsgroups: comp.parallel
From: Joerg.Meyer@e-technik.tu-chemnitz.de (Joerg Meyer)
Subject: WinMPI - MPI for MS Windows 3.1 now available
Organization: University of Technology Chemnitz, FRG
Date: 29 May 1995 05:59:06 GMT
Message-ID: <3qbnra$kup@usenet.srv.cis.pitt.edu>

			>>>>	WinMPI v0.99    <<<<
		Message Passing Interface for Microsoft Windows 3.1
				Version 0.99

		       by Joerg Meyer, Hesham El-Rewini
			University of Nebraska at Omaha
			Department of Computer Science

WinMPI is the first MPI implementation for MS-Windows 3.1.  Version 0.99
of WinMPI is the first beta release, which supports the full MPI standard. 
It runs on a single IBM compatible PC, no networking is required.  The
wide availability and broad acceptance of PC`s and MS Windows provides
access to the world of parallel programming to a large group of interested
people which either do not have access to UNIX computers or which are not
familiar with this operating system. 

WinMPI is a result of a master thesis by Joerg Meyer.  The idea came 
Prof. Hesham El-Rewini, who also acted as advisor for this project.
The WinMPI package can be obtained by anonymous ftp from csftp.unomaha.edu
in the directory /pub/rewini/WinMPI.

WinMPI is based on MPICH from Argonne National Laboratory/Mississippi
State University.  WinMPI v0.99 is derived from MPICH as of June 17, 1994. 
Future WinMPI versions will be based on later MPICH releases. 

----------
MOTIVATION
----------
One may wonder why MPI was ported to MS Windows.  The main goal of MPI is 
an interface for portable parallel software which can be executed in a 
shorter period of time.  WinMPI intents to broaden the acceptability of 
MPI within the community of parallel software users.  WinMPI trades 
speedup for wide availability.  The lion share of computer user today own 
IBM compatible PC's running MS-Windows.  WinMPI enables these people to
deal with MPI.

We consider WinMPI to be suitable especially for two fields of application:

LEARNING TOOL:
WinMPI encourages a new group of people to learn about parallel 
programming.  Familiar with MS-Windows, they can explore the world of 
parallel processing within their familiar environment.  C programming 
experience is sufficient, no UNIX experience needed.

DEVELOPMENT TOOL: 
MPI programs can be written and tested on a PC while only the final
program is run on the parallel machine.  The major part of the
implementation can be taken of these expensive computers, saving valuable
resources.  

----------------------
IMPLEMENTATION DETAILS
----------------------
WinMPI was implemented using the MS Visual C++ Compiler 1.5.  Therefore, 
writing WinMPI programs requires currently this compiler.  Borland 
compiler support is planned for a later version.  The complete source 
code is available.  For demonstration purposes, two example programs 
(including executables) are included in the distribution.

Despite the numerous and fundamental differences between UNIX
and Windows programming, it is possible to run UNIX-MPI programs with
WinMPI and vice versa.  Minor changes may be required, though.  The WinMPI
documentation describes the steps (and pitfalls) of this procedure. 

WinMPI v0.99 comes in two sizes:

wmpis099.zip	(small) WinMPI distribution without source code
		contains libraries and header files for creating MPI 
		applications,  documentation and example programs
wmpil099.zip	(large) WinMPI distribution 
		contains all files from the small distribution and the source
		code for the WinMPI libraries

We would appreciate comments, bug reports, experiences, and enhancement 
requests.  
   *** Post comments and bug reports to: jmeyer1@unocss.unomaha.edu ***

This article was posted to the following newsgroups:
			comp.parallel
			comp.parallel.mpi

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joerg Meyer			Technical University Chemnitz-Zwickau
joerg.meyer@e-technik.tu-chemnitz.de

Prof. Hesham El-Rewini  	University of Nebraska at Omaha
rewini@unocss.unomaha.edu

