On the design of Eilean: a Linda-like library for MPI

Abstract

We introduce the design of a parallel library for MPI based on the Linda programming paradigm, called Eilean. It provides a scalable distribution of the tuple space through a hierarchical (or cluster) partitioning scheme, and tuple type specific access/distribution policies. Portability of the library is achieved using the message passing standard MPI as the underlying communication system. The hierarchical distribution provides a static, yet general partition of the tuple space through the available processors. With such general structure, the run-time system, aided by programmer hints, can map tuples closely to the processes which use them. To accomplish the tuple mapping task, Eilean treats tuples differently according to their use within the application. The required information about tuple access patterns is explicitly given by the programmer and used during run-time. >