Hello all,
I am interested in learning MPI for my work for my PhD, but I am having
a bit of trouble identifying the differences between MPI-1.2 and MPI-2.
Sources state that MPI-2 has just added functionality, i/o
communications,... etc to MPI-1. But other sources state that MPI-2 is
very different and should be used _instead_ of MPI-1. I have read
general info from the documents from the mpi-forum, but its unclear, so
can anybody clarify this for me?
I have always found things easier when reading from an actual book (and
not from online pdf's from here and there..) so I am looking in buying
one of Bill Gropp's 'Using MPI' books. What would you recommend on
going for; 'Using MPI' (second edition), or should I go for the 'Using
MPI-2' ?

Any help/suggestions would be appriciated!

Thanks
Spiros

s_siouris wrote:

> one of Bill Gropp's 'Using MPI' books. What would you recommend on
> going for; 'Using MPI' (second edition), or should I go for the 'Using
> MPI-2' ?

Get them both. Start with 'Using MPI', if you can afford only one
right now. MPI-2 is about 'advanced features', which I would try to
avoid using right now, if I were to program something that had to
work most robustly.

The basic features of MPI-1 have not been changed too much, other
than that some interfaces were not 64-bit compatible and had to be
obsoleted - and replaced with new functions.

Hi,

In article <1119397434.936581.49760@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com>,
s_siouris <s_siouris@hotmail.com> wrote:

<snip>
> I have always found things easier when reading from an actual book (and
> not from online pdf's from here and there..) so I am looking in buying
> one of Bill Gropp's 'Using MPI' books. What would you recommend on
> going for; 'Using MPI' (second edition), or should I go for the 'Using
> MPI-2' ?

just to mention, that for both the examples and errata pages are online
at:

   http://www-unix.mcs.anl.gov/mpi/usingmpi/index.html
   http://www-unix.mcs.anl.gov/mpi/usingmpi2

Cheers - Reuti

ok, thank you for your replies.
I will order 'Using MPI' and work my way from there.

Thanks
Spiros

s_siouris schrieb:

> Hello all,
> I am interested in learning MPI for my work for my PhD, but I am having
> a bit of trouble identifying the differences between MPI-1.2 and MPI-2.
> Sources state that MPI-2 has just added functionality, i/o
> communications,... etc to MPI-1. But other sources state that MPI-2 is
> very different and should be used _instead_ of MPI-1. I have read
> general info from the documents from the mpi-forum, but its unclear, so
> can anybody clarify this for me?
> I have always found things easier when reading from an actual book (and
> not from online pdf's from here and there..) so I am looking in buying
> one of Bill Gropp's 'Using MPI' books. What would you recommend on
> going for; 'Using MPI' (second edition), or should I go for the 'Using
> MPI-2' ?
> 
> Any help/suggestions would be appriciated!
> 
> Thanks
> Spiros
> 

Maybe the misconception is that there are the MPI standards 1.2 and 2.0

....

and the frequently used MPI implementations MPICH and MPICH2 from Argonne.

I suggest to start reading the MPI 1.2 standard and using the latest
version of MPICH (without the 2, but containing functionality from the
standard MPI 2.0) or LAM MPI.

To add to your confusion _the_ three different free MPI implementations 
MPICH, MPICH2 and LAM MPI are available in a plenty of revisions / 
releases / versions as it is with all software...

BTW: is Open MPI usable by now?

In article <3jns2cFqum4iU1@individual.net>, Georg Bisseling
<spam@bisseling.de> wrote:

> s_siouris schrieb:
> 
> > Hello all,
> > I am interested in learning MPI for my work for my PhD, but I am having
> > a bit of trouble identifying the differences between MPI-1.2 and MPI-2.
> > Sources state that MPI-2 has just added functionality, i/o
> > communications,... etc to MPI-1. But other sources state that MPI-2 is
> > very different and should be used _instead_ of MPI-1. I have read
> > general info from the documents from the mpi-forum, but its unclear, so
> > can anybody clarify this for me?
> > I have always found things easier when reading from an actual book (and
> > not from online pdf's from here and there..) so I am looking in buying
> > one of Bill Gropp's 'Using MPI' books. What would you recommend on
> > going for; 'Using MPI' (second edition), or should I go for the 'Using
> > MPI-2' ?
> > 
> > Any help/suggestions would be appriciated!
> > 
> > Thanks
> > Spiros
> > 
> 
> Maybe the misconception is that there are the MPI standards 1.2 and 2.0
> 
> ...
> 
> and the frequently used MPI implementations MPICH and MPICH2 from Argonne.
> 
> I suggest to start reading the MPI 1.2 standard and using the latest
> version of MPICH (without the 2, but containing functionality from the
> standard MPI 2.0) or LAM MPI.
> 

According to the README of the latest MPICH 1.2.7, it maybe the last
release of MPICH, and further work is only done in MPICH2. So, instead
of losing time in getting in touch with a soon outdated implementation,
I would suggest to start with MPICH2. - Reuti

> To add to your confusion _the_ three different free MPI implementations 
> MPICH, MPICH2 and LAM MPI are available in a plenty of revisions / 
> releases / versions as it is with all software...
> 
> BTW: is Open MPI usable by now?
> 
> 
>