This post introduces the Open MPI library. (Its official website, its GitHub Repo)
Open MPI is a popular open source MPI implementation.
Open MPI is a Message Passing Interface (MPI) library project combining technologies and resources from several other projects (FT-MPI, LA-MPI, LAM/MPI, and PACX-MPI). It is used by many TOP500 supercomputers including Roadrunner, which was the world’s fastest supercomputer from June 2008 to November 2009,[1]and K computer, the fastest supercomputer from June 2011 to June 2012.[2][3]
The Open MPI developers selected these MPI implementations as excelling in one or more areas. Open MPI aims to use the best ideas and technologies from the individual projects and create one world-class open-source MPI implementation that excels in all areas. The Open MPI project specifies several top-level goals:
- to create a free, open source software, peer-reviewed, production-quality complete MPI-3.0 implementation
- to provide extremely high, competitive performance (low latency or high bandwidth)
- to involve the high-performance computing community directly with external development and feedback (vendors, 3rd party researchers, users, etc.)
- to provide a stable platform for 3rd-party research and commercial development
- to help prevent the “forking problem” common to other MPI projects[4]
- to support a wide variety of high-performance computing platforms and environments
