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NAME

       libmpi - LAM/MPI implementation

DESCRIPTION

       LAM features a full implementation of Message Passing Interface (MPI) 1 standard with many
       features included from the MPI-2 standard.

       Compliant applications are source code portable between LAM and any  other  implementation
       of  MPI.   In  addition  to  meeting  the  standard  in  a high quality manner, LAM offers
       extensive monitoring capabilities to support debugging.  Monitoring happens on two levels.
       LAM  has  the  hooks  to allow a snapshot of process and message status to be taken at any
       time during an application run.  The status includes all aspects of  synchronization  plus
       datatype  map  /  signature,  communicator  group membership and message contents.  On the
       second level,  the  MPI  library  is  instrumented  to  produce  a  cumulative  record  of
       communication, which can be visualized either at runtime or post-mortem.

       LAM/MPI features the ability to change its underlying message transport mechanism, as well
       as pass tunable parameters to different components in LAM/MPI at run-time --  without  the
       need  to  recompile  or relink user MPI applications.  This provides great flexibility for
       both developers of MPI software as well  as  researchers  investigating  MPI  performance.
       This  modual  framework  is called the System Services Interface (SSI), and is responsible
       for much of the back-end functionality in LAM/MPI.

       Another strength of this MPI implementation is the movement of non-blocking  communication
       requests,  including those that result from buffered sends.  This is the real challenge of
       implementing MPI; everything else is mostly a straight forward wrapping of  an  underlying
       communication  mechanism.   LAM  allows  messages  to be buffered on the source end in any
       state of progression, including partially transmitted packets.  This capability  leads  to
       great portability and robustness.

   User Information
       Users  are  strongly encouraged to read the LAM/MPI User's Guide that is included with the
       LAM/MPI distribution, and is provided  on  the  main  LAM/MPI  web  site  (http://www.lam-
       mpi.org/).

   Up-to-Date Information
       The  LAM  home  page  can  be found on the World Wide Web at: http://www.lam-mpi.org/.  It
       should be consulted for the most current  information  about  LAM,  as  well  as  updates,
       patches, etc.

   MPI Communication
       The  sophisticated  message  advancing  engine at the heart of the MPI library uses only a
       handful of routines to drive the underlying communication system.   Runtime  flags  decide
       which  message  passing  engine  module  is used, so recompilation of user programs is not
       necessary.

       The different message passing engines are commonly referred  to  as  "Request  Progression
       Interface" (RPI) modules.  The LAM/MPI distribution includes multiple RPI modules; see the
       lamssi_rpi(7) man page for more details.

       One notable module uses LAM's network  message-passing  subsystem,  including  its  buffer
       daemon.   In  this "daemon" mode, LAM's extensive monitoring features are fully available.
       Although the "daemon" mode typically incurrs higher latency than the "native" RPI modules,
       applications that can utilize latency-hiding techniques may experience greater performance
       due to the daemon-mode's ability to exhibit true asynchronous message passing.

   Guaranteed Envelope Resources
       Applications may fail, legitimately, on some implementations but  not  others  due  to  an
       escape  hatch  in  the  MPI  Standard  called  "resource limitations".  Most resources are
       managed locally and it is easy for an implementation  to  provide  a  helpful  error  code
       and/or  message when a resource is exhausted.  Buffer space for message envelopes is often
       a remote resource (as in LAM) which is difficult  to  manage.   An  overflow  may  not  be
       reported  (as  in  some  other  implementations)  to the process that caused the overflow.
       Moreover, interpretation of  the  MPI  guarantee  on  message  progress  may  confuse  the
       debugging of an application that actually died on envelope overflow.

       LAM has a property called "Guaranteed Envelope Resources" (GER) which serves two purposes.
       It is a promise from the implementation to  the  application  that  a  minimum  amount  of
       envelope  buffering will be available to each process pair.  Secondly, it ensures that the
       producer of messages that overflows this resource will be throttled or cited with an error
       as necessary.

       A  minimum GER is configured when LAM is built.  The MPI library uses a protocol to ensure
       GER when running in daemon mode.  The default C2C mode (TCP/IP) does not use  a  protocol,
       because process-pair protection is provided by TCP/IP itself.  Errors are only reported to
       the receiving process in C2C mode.  An option to mpirun(1) disables GER.

   Input and Output
       The MPI standard does not specify standard I/O functionality.  LAM does not interfere with
       the  I/O  capabilities  of  the  underlying system but it does make special provisions for
       remote terminal I/O using the ANSI/POSIX routines.  See mpirun(1) and tstdio(3).

       LAM now includes the ROMIO distribution for MPI-2 file input and output.  If ROMIO support
       is compiled into LAM, the functionality from Chapter 9 of the MPI-2 standard is provided.

       ROMIO  has  some important limitations under LAM; the User's Guide in the LAM distribution
       should be consulted before writing MPI programs that use MPI I/O.

   Dynamic Processes
       LAM includes an implementation of MPI-2 dynamic process creation.

LAM Extensions to MPI

   Debugging Aids
       LAM includes the MPI-2 functionality for naming  opaque  types.   Support  for  the  Etnus
       TotalView parallel debugger is also provided; see the User's Guide for more details.

       Additionally,  LAM  provides  the  capability  to launch non-MPI programs on remote nodes.
       This includes shell scripts, debuggers, etc.  As long as  an  MPI  program  is  eventually
       launched  (as  a  child,  grandchild, etc.), LAM can handle executing as many intermediate
       programs as necessary.  This can greatly help debugging and logging of user programs.

   Trace Generation
       To avoid being swamped with trace data from  a  long  running  application,  LAM  supplies
       collective   operations   to   turn   the  tap  on  and  off.   See  MPIL_Trace_on(2)  and
       MPIL_Trace_off(2).

   Asynchronous Signals
       LAM has an signal handling package which mirrors but does not interfere with POSIX  signal
       handling.  An MPI extension routine delivers a signal to a process.  See MPIL_Signal(2).

SEE ALSO

   Overview of Commands and Libraries
       introu(1), introc(2), INTROF(2)

   System Services Interface (SSI)
       lamssi(7), lamssi_boot(7), lamssi_coll(7), lamssi_rpi(7)

   Starting / Stopping LAM
       recon(1),   lamboot(1),   lamhalt(1),   lamnodes(1),   lamwipe(1),  tping(1),  lamgrow(1),
       lamshrink(1)

   Compiling MPI Applications
       mpicc(1), mpiCC(1), mpif77(1)

   Running MPI Applications
       mpirun(1), lamclean(1)

   Running Non-MPI Applications
       lamexec(1)

   Monitoring MPI Applications
       mpitask(1)

   Unloading MPI Trace Data
       lamtrace(1)

   Reference Documents
       "LAM/MPI Installation Guide"
              included in the LAM/MPI distribution and available on http://www.lam-mpi.org/

       "LAM/MPI User's Guide"
              included in the LAM/MPI distribution and available on http://www.lam-mpi.org/

       "LAM Frequently Asked Questions"
              at http://www.lam-mpi.org/faq/

       "MPI Primer / Developing with LAM", Ohio Supercomputer Center

       "MPI: A Message-Passing Interface Standard", Message-Passing Interface Forum, version 1.1
              at http://www.mpi-forum.org/

       "MPI-2: Extensions to the Message Passing Interface",  Message  Passing  Interface  Forum,
       version 2.0
              at http://www.mpi-forum.org/

   MPI Quick Tutorials
       "LAM/MPI ND User Guide / Introduction"

       "MPI: It's Easy to Get Started"

       "MPI: Everyday Datatypes"

       "MPI: Everyday Collective Communication"
              at http://www.lam-mpi.org/mpi/tutorials/lam/

   Guaranteed Envelope Resources
       "Robust MPI Message Delivery Through Guaranteed Resources",
              MPI Developer's Conference, 1995