Introduction
Message Passing Interface (MPI) is a portable library of subprograms which can be used to facilitate parallel computing.
The MPI subprograms can be called from C and Fortran programs.
Parallel Computing
Parallel computing enables large scale numerical problems to be solved in a timely manner. It can be performed on a multi-core PC, or using several networked PCs on a cluster or grid.
The key is to separate large problems into smaller ones. The calculations are then carried out simultaneously.
The MPI subprograms regulate the communication and synchronization between the various CPUs and memory locations.
Installation
MPI can be downloaded from:
http://www.mcs.anl.gov/research/projects/mpich2/
The best installation method is to build the source code using the directions in:
http://www.mcs.anl.gov/research/projects/mpich2/documentation/files/mpich2-1.4.1-installguide.pdf
This can be done under Cygwin or Linux.
Sample Program
Then go to: http://www.cs.usfca.edu/~peter/ppmpi/
Download the greetings.c program to the same folder which contains mpicc.
Also find and copy libmpich.a into this same folder.
Compile the program via:
mpicc -o greetings greetings.c libmpich.a
Then run the program via:
./mpirun-n 4 ./greetings
Grant persmission to run under firewalls if so prompted by pop-up windows.
The program can also be run as:
./mpiexec -n 4 ./greetings
In the above example, four processors were used.
More later . . .
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Another source… Argonne National Labs MPICH2
Tom Irvine
Vibrationdata 