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PALM_MP
In 2003 the final version of the PALM coupler has been released. It is
called PALM_MP to underline the full implementation of the MPMD
paradigm. This acronym comes from parallel computing and means Multiple
Program Multiple Data: different independent programs work together
dealing with different data and different part of the algorithm. The
adoption of the standard message passing library MPI2, now widely
available in freeware or propietary distributions, made it possible. In
PALM_MP the coupled entities can be fully independent programs or, for
optimization issues, subroutines of higher level entities called blocks.
All the dynamic coupling issues
are therefore fully implemented: the execution of the coupled entities
is driven by a scheduler that allocate the computational resources
accordingly to the algorithm flow and to the synchronizations, the
priorities and the limitations set by the user.
Analogously, the parallel communications are managed
by the PALM driver that can deal with many sorts of data remapping and
redistribution, including the selection of portion of data in case of
partial exchanges of large fields.
The algebra
toolbox includes all the most common linear algebra and
minimization routines and its use has been largely simplified. Its
increased modularity makes very easy to add customised algebraic
procedures.
The graphical
user interface keeps its overall aspect, but it has been largely
optimised and it interfaces the run
time monitoring and performances
analysis tools.