PARALLEL I O - AN INTRODUCTION

As an introduction to and motivation for this special issue we discuss the definition of parallel I/O, why it is necessary and the major iss ues that need to be addressed. We expand on the research issues by rec ording an e-mailed 'roundtable' discussion among the authors of papers in this issue. The authors were asked to respond to three questions c oncerning the state of and needed direction of research in parallel I/ O. Authors were also given the chance to respond to each others' answe rs.