Newsgroups: comp.parallel
From: pakin@white-elephant.cs.uiuc.edu (Scott Pakin)
Subject: ANNOUNCEMENT: Illinois Fast Messages library v1.1
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: 18 Sep 1995 14:36:31 GMT
Message-ID: <43k05f$27s@usenet.srv.cis.pitt.edu>

            +---------------------------------------------------+
            |                                                   |
            | Fast Messages V1.1 for Myrinet is now available!  |
            |                                                   |
            +---------------------------------------------------+

Release 1.1 of the library is now available from our WWW server:

        http://www-csag.cs.uiuc.edu/projects/communication.html

===========================================================================

Features added to FM for Myrinet in the new release:

        - arbitrary length messages

        - in order delivery of messages

        - new, window based, flow control mechanism for improved
          reliability on heavily unbalanced networks

        - support for the new Myricom switches with relative addressing

        - interoperability with Myricom's messaging layer running
          on different nodes on the same network

===========================================================================


        The FM library version 1.1, an implementation of the Illinois Fast
Messages interface, contains fast messaging primitives which provide low
latency and high bandwidth for short messages.

        FM has been implemented on several platforms (the Cray T3D and now,
workstation clusters interconnected by a high-speed Myrinet network) and
provides low-latency, high-bandwidth communication for messages as short as
4 words.  Performance is an order of magnitude better than the "standard"
messaging layers for each platform; message overhead is only 3 microseconds
on T3D FM and 8 microseconds on Myrinet FM (for small messages).  The FM
messaging layer is a rather simple set of primitives, appropriate for
programmers as well as implementors of communications libraries, parallel
compilers, and run-time systems.

        The release contains everything necessary to run Fast Messages,
specifically the library (libFM.a), and an include file (fm.h) that
contains the function prototypes, as well as a usage manual.  Myrinet FM
has been tested on SPARCstation 10/20s and SPARCclassics (sun4m
architecture) as well as on SPARCstation 2s (sun4c architecture) running
SunOS 4.1.3.  However, it should also work on other SPARC-based platforms.

        Please contact us at <fast-messages@red-herring.cs.uiuc.edu> if you
have any questions, comments or problems.

 +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 |                                                                           |
 |           T3D Fast Messages                    Myrinet Fast Messages      |
 |           -----------------                    ---------------------      |
 | Vijay Karamcheti <vijayk@cs.uiuc.edu>     Scott Pakin <pakin@cs.uiuc.edu> |
 |                                                                           |
 |                                                                           |
 |                          Principal investigator                           |
 |                          ----------------------                           |
 |                   Andrew A. Chien <achien@cs.uiuc.edu>                    |
 |                                                                           |
 |                                                                           |
 |                     Concurrent Systems Architecture Group                 |
 |                     Department of Computer Science                        |
 |                     University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign            |
 |                     1304 W. Springfield Avenue                            |
 |                     Urbana, IL 61801-2910                                 |
 |                                                                           |
 |                                                                           |
 |                                                                           |
 |                         The Fast Messages team                            |
 |                         ----------------------                            |
 |                         Andrew A. Chien                                   |
 |                         Steve Hoover                                      |
 |                         Vijay Karamcheti                                  |
 |                         Mario Lauria                                      |
 |                         Olga Natkovich                                    |
 |                         Scott Pakin                                       |
 |                                                                           |
 +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

