Glossary

asynchronous

An asynchronous operation or function proceeds in parallel with its initiator. The initiator must check later to see if the operation or function has completed.

blocking

A blocking function is one that does not return until the function is complete.

broadcast

To send messages to multiple tasks. Often, a broadcast is used in the sense of sending to all tasks, whereas multicast is used in the sense of sending to an arbitrary set of tasks.

cplx

A data item consisting of two successive float types.

dcplx

A data item consisting of two successive double types.

dynamic groups

Groups in which tasks can join and leave groups at any time.

EU

Emory University.

global groups

A group consisting of all the tasks (or PEs) in the MPP partition.

message passing

A parallel programming style in which explicit messages (containing a user-defined, integer message type and data) are sent between tasks.

multicast

To send messages to multiple tasks. See also broadcast.

nonblocking

A nonblocking function is one that returns immediately.

NQE

Network Queuing Environment.

ORNL

Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

PE

Processing element.

probe

A message passing concept in which a check is made to see if a message is available, though the message is not actually received at that time.

PVM

Parallel Virtual Machine.

PVM console

A user-level command that lets you monitor and control your PVM system. The console is run with the command pvm.

PVM daemon

A user-level process that controls and manages PVM activity on a given host machine. The daemon is run with the command pvmd3.

pvm_tid

The name used in this manual to refer to a PVM task identifier, which is used to reference a specific PVM task.

RPC

Remote Procedure Call.

SIMD

Single instruction, multiple data.

SPMD

Same program, multiple data.

Stand-alone mode

PVM is used for communication between tasks within a single executable file with no PVM daemon present.

stride

The spacing between elements.

synchronous

A synchronous operation or function does not return control to its initiator until it has completed the requested operation or function.

task

An independent, parallel process.

task identifier

A 32-bit integer uniquely identifying a PVM task.

UDP

User datagram protocol.

UT

University of Tennessee.

XDR

eXternal Data Representation.