HP-MPI User's Guide (11th Edition)

Glossary
tag
Glossary 315
Security Support Provider Interface
(SSPI) A common interface between
transport-level applications such as
Microsoft Remote Procedure Call (RPC), and
security providers such as Windows
Distributed Security. SSPI allows a
transport application to call one of several
security providers to obtain an
authenticated connection. These calls do not
require extensive knowledge of the security
protocol’s details.
send modes Point-to-point communication
in which messages are passed using one of
four different types of blocking sends. The
four send modes include standard mode
(MPI_Send), buffered mode (MPI_Bsend),
synchronous mode (MPI_Ssend), and ready
mode (MPI_Rsend). The modes are all
invoked in a similar manner and all pass the
same arguments.
shared memory model Model in which
each process can access a shared address
space. Concurrent accesses to shared
memory are controlled by synchronization
primitives.
SIMD Single instruction multiple data.
Category of applications in which
homogeneous processes execute the same
instructions on their own data.
SMP Symmetric multiprocessor. A
multiprocess computer in which all the
processors have equal access to all machine
resources. Symmetric multiprocessors have
no manager or worker processes.
spin-yield Refers to an HP-MPI facility
that allows you to specify the number of
milliseconds a process should block (spin)
waiting for a message before yielding the
CPU to another process. Specify a spin-yield
value in the MPI_FLAGS environment
variable.
SPMD Single program multiple data.
Implementations of HP-MPI where an
application is completely contained in a
single executable. SPMD applications begin
with the invocation of a single process called
the master. The master then spawns some
number of identical child processes. The
master and the children all run the same
executable.
standard send mode Form of blocking
send where the sending process returns
when the system can buffer the message or
when the message is received.
stride Constant amount of memory space
between data elements where the elements
are stored noncontiguously. Strided data are
sent and received using derived data types.
synchronization Bringing multiple
processes to the same point in their
execution before any can continue. For
example, MPI_Barrier is a collective routine
that blocks the calling process until all
receiving processes have called it. This is a
useful approach for separating two stages of
a computation so messages from each stage
are not overlapped.
synchronous send mode Form of blocking
send where the sending process returns only
if a matching receive is posted and the
receiving process has started to receive the
message.
tag Integer label assigned to a message
when it is sent. Message tags are one of the
synchronization variables used to ensure
that a message is delivered to the correct
receiving process.