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Reviewer: Lorie M. Liebrock

MPI combines many of the best features of numerous message-passing systems, while showing that parallel processing need not compromise efficiency, portability, and functionality. Along with standard message-passing capabilities, MPI extends the notion of a message tag to define a context that is allocated at runtime. Contexts allow user programs and libraries to maintain separate “message spaces.” A communicator is defined by the system-allocated context and the group of processes. Communicators define precisely which processes are involved in a communication. Furthermore, with intercommunicators, controlled group-to-group communication is supported. Just as the pattern of communication, or application topology, is an integral part of an application, the definition of the virtual topology is an integral part of MPI. Cartesian topologies are predefined with special operations such as shift. Other MPI features include support for debugging, profiling, blocking and non-blocking communication, libraries, and heterogeneous networks of processors. Beginning with a very small, but sufficient, set of routines, MPI is introduced in terms of what is needed to solve particular problems. This approach is used in the early chapters of the book. More advanced features are introduced with the focus on the feature instead of the application, but examples are provided. The authors alternate between the use of Fortran, C, and C++ in the examples. Only occasionally is this mixing of languages confusing or distracting. The summary of MPI routines has three parts—one each for C, Fortran, and C++. The summary is somewhat unclear as it “contains bindings for the MPI-1 routines” with “added to this list the MPI-2 functions that replace deprecated MPI-1 functions.” However, for example, the (deprecated) MPI-1 function MPI_Copy_function does not appear at all. Some of the new MPI-2 functions, such as MPI-Finalized, are also omitted. It would be helpful for the index to indicate where each function appears in the summary of routines. Throughout the book, MPI implementors choices are often discussed to warn users of where implementations can vary. In a number of places, the authors make statements like “few implementations currently exploit the opportunities offered to an MPI implementation, though at least one does.” If the point was worth making in the first place, I would have liked to know which implementations were exceptional. The body of the text is divided into ten chapters: Background Introduction to MPI Using MPI in Simple Programs Intermediate MPI Advanced Message Passing in MPI Parallel Libraries Other Features of MPI Understanding how MPI Implementations Work Comparing MPI with Other Systems for Inter process Communication Beyond Message Passing Five appendices present a “Summary of MPI Routines and Their Arguments,” “The MPICH Implementation of MPI,” “The MPE Multiprocessing Environment Functions,” “MPI Resources on the World Wide Web,” and “Language Details.” The authors also provide a glossary, references, and subject and function term indexes. Overall, this book is easy to read and follow, but there are a few problems. In a number of places, the authors refer readers to reference [64] to see something “described in a more tutorial approach.” Unfortunately, reference [64] is this book! In addition, it would be helpful to give a brief introduction to advanced topics before referring readers to another source.

Reviewer: Len Freeman

Published in 1999 as part of the MIT Press series on scientific and engineering computation, this is the second edition of a book first published in 1994, and has been updated to reflect the revisions incorporated in the message-passing interface (MPI) 1.2 specification. The stated aim of the book is to be a companion to the MPI Standard; its intention is to demonstrate the use of MPI for the development of practical parallel applications. The book adopts a tutorial approach, with lots of examples to motivate the increasing complexity of MPI functionality. The examples are presented in Fortran, C, and C++ throughout. There are some references to the MPI 2.0 standard and its differences from the MPI 1.2 standard, though more complete details of the MPI 2.0 standard are to be found in the companion volume [1]. The book contains ten chapters. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to and motivation for parallel computing. It also presents a review of parallel programming models and, unsurprisingly, the advantages of the message-passing model. Chapters 2 through 5 introduce much of the functionality of the MPI library. The basic structure of the presentation is to use examples to motivate the need for additional MPI functionality; MPI listings are presented, and the purpose of each of the MPI operations is carefully described. Chapter 2 introduces the core send and receive functionality. Chapter 3 uses numerical quadrature, based on a repeated mid-point rule, and matrix-vector multiplication to introduce a variety of communication routines. Also included in this chapter is an introduction to both the theoretical and experimental study of the performance of parallel programs; performance analysis is returned to in subsequent chapters. More complex examples, and the attendant requirements for more complex functionality, are found in chapters 4 and 5. The full richness of the MPI communications functionality is progressively introduced. Chapters 3, 4, and 5 include very useful “Common Errors and Misunderstandings” sections. Chapter 6 introduces parallel libraries and describes the difficulties that arise in their development. This introduction is used to motivate a review of the features of MPI that support the development of “safe” parallel libraries. The final major chapter, chapter 7, is taken as an opportunity to describe those features of MPI that have yet to be introduced; this includes further communication operations, intercommunicators, and error handlers. Chapters 8, 9, and 10 are relatively short chapters that deal respectively with the way MPI implementations work, a comparison of MPI with other communication systems, and future alternatives to message passing. The book concludes with a useful glossary of terms and five appendices, the first of which is a list of the bindings for the MPI-1 routines in C, Fortran, and C++. There is both a regular subject index and an index of MPI routines and terms. I enjoyed reading this book a great deal. One might expect a book on such a specific technical subject as MPI to be rather dry, but that was not the case with this book. The full functionality of MPI is revealed over the first seven chapters of the book, with convincing and realistic examples used to motivate each additional feature of the library. The book is extremely well written and well presented. An occasional typographical error did escape the proofreading net, but, given the very technical nature of the material, the rarity of these slips is admirable. I do not see the book as a textbook from which to teach parallel computing. It is more of a reference book to which those already experienced in parallel computing will be able to turn for answers to their MPI queries. It will certainly find a prominent place on my bookshelf. Online Computing Reviews Service