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This document is organized as follows:  
 
 
 
- Chapter  MPI-2 Terms and Conventions 
,   MPI-2 Terms and Conventions,  
explains notational terms and conventions used  
throughout the  MPI-2 document.  
 
- Chapter Version 1.2 of MPI 
,  Version 1.2 of  MPI,  
contains the specification of  MPI-1.2, which  
has one new function and consists primarily of clarifications to  MPI-1.1.  
It is expected that some implementations will need  
modification in order to become  MPI-1 compliant, as the result of these  
clarifications.   
 
  
 
The rest of this document contains the  MPI-2 Standard Specification.  
It adds substantial new types of functionality to  MPI, in most cases  
specifying functions for an extended computational model (e.g., dynamic process  
creation and one-sided communication) or for a significant new capability  
(e.g., parallel I/O).  
 
The following is a list of the chapters in  MPI-2, along with  
a brief description of each.  
 
 
 
- Chapter Miscellany 
,  Miscellany, discusses items that don't fit  
elsewhere, in particular language interoperability.  
 
- Chapter Process Creation and Management 
,  Process Creation and Management, discusses the  
extension of  MPI to remove the static process model in  MPI.  It  
defines routines that allow for creation of processes.  
 
- Chapter One-Sided Communications 
,  One-Sided Communications, defines  
communication routines that can be completed by a single process.  These include  
shared-memory operations (put/get) and remote accumulate operations.  
 
- Chapter Extended Collective Operations 
,  Extended Collective Operations,  
  
extends the semantics of  MPI-1 collective operations to include  
intercommunicators.  It also adds more convenient methods of constructing  
intercommunicators and two new collective operations.  
  
 
- Chapter External Interfaces 
,  External Interfaces,  
defines routines designed to allow developers to layer on  
top of  MPI.  This includes generalized requests, routines that  
decode  MPI opaque objects, and threads.  
 
- Chapter I/O 
,  I/O, defines  MPI-2 support for parallel I/O.  
 
- Chapter Language Bindings 
,  Language Bindings, describes the C++ binding  
and discusses Fortran-90 issues.  
 
  
The Appendices are:  
 
 
 
- Annex Language Binding 
,  Language Bindings,  
gives bindings for  MPI-2 functions, and lists constants, error  
codes, etc.  
 
- Annex  MPI-1 C++ Language Binding 
,   MPI-1 C++ Language Binding,  
gives C++ bindings for  MPI-1.  
 
  
The   MPI Function Index is a simple index showing the location of  
the precise definition of each  MPI-2 function, together with C, C++,  
and Fortran bindings.  
  
 
 MPI-2 provides various interfaces to facilitate interoperability  
  of distinct   MPI implementations.  Among these are the canonical  
  
  data representation for  MPI I/O and for  MPI_PACK_EXTERNAL and  
   MPI_UNPACK_EXTERNAL.  
  
The definition of an actual binding of these interfaces that will  
enable interoperability is outside the scope of this document.  
 
  
 
A separate document consists of ideas that were discussed in the  
 MPI Forum and deemed to have value, but are not included in the  MPI  
Standard.  They are part of the ``Journal of Development'' (JOD), lest good ideas be  
lost and in order to provide a starting point for further work.    
  
The chapters in the JOD are  
 
 
  
 
- Chapter ,  Spawning Independent Processes,  
  includes some elements of dynamic process management, in particular  
  management of processes with which the spawning processes do not intend to  
  communicate, that the Forum discussed at length but ultimately decided not  
  to include in the  MPI Standard.  
 
- Chapter ,  Threads and MPI, describes some  
  of the expected  
  interaction between an  MPI implementation and a thread library in a  
  multi-threaded environment.  
  
 
- Chapter ,  Communicator ID, describes an  
  approach to providing identifiers for communicators.  
  
 
- Chapter ,  Miscellany, discusses  
  Miscellaneous topics in the  MPI JOD, in particular single-copy routines for  
  use in shared-memory environments and new datatype constructors.  
 
- Chapter ,  Toward a Full Fortran 90 Interface,  
  describes an approach to providing a more elaborate Fortran 90 interface.  
  
 
- Chapter ,  Split Collective  
    Communication, describes a specification for certain non-blocking  
  collective operations.  
 
- Chapter ,  Real-Time  MPI, discusses  MPI support for  
real time processing.  
 
  
  
  
 
 
  
  
 
  
  
 



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MPI-2.0 of July 18, 1997
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