Object-oriented analysis and design of the Message Passing Interface

The major contribution of this paper is the application of modern analysis techniques to the important Message Passing Interface standard, work done i n order to obtain information useful in designing both application programm er interfaces for object-oriented languages, and message passing systems. R ecognition of 'Design Patterns' within MPI is an important discernment of t his work. A further contribution is a comparative discussion of the design and evolution of three actual object-oriented designs for the Message Passi ng Interface (MPI-1) application programmer interface (API), two of which h ave influenced the standardization of C++ explicit parallel programming wit h MPI-2, and which strongly indicate the value of a priori object-oriented design and analysis of such APIs. Knowledge of design patterns is assumed h erein. Discussion provided here includes systems developed at Mississippi State Un iversity (MPI++), the University of Notre Dame (OOMPI), and the merger of t hese systems that results in a standard binding within the MPI-2 standard. Commentary concerning additional opportunities for further object-oriented analysis and design of message passing systems and APIs, such as MPI-2 and MPI/RT, are mentioned in conclusion. Connection of modern software design and engineering principles to high per formance computing programming approaches is a new and important further co ntribution of this work. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.