From owner-sc22wg5@open-std.org Tue Jan 27 00:28:16 2009 Return-Path: X-Original-To: sc22wg5-dom7 Delivered-To: sc22wg5-dom7@www2.open-std.org Received: by www2.open-std.org (Postfix, from userid 521) id E15FBC178DE; Tue, 27 Jan 2009 00:28:16 +0100 (CET) X-Original-To: sc22wg5@open-std.org Delivered-To: sc22wg5@open-std.org Received: from ppsw-5.csi.cam.ac.uk (ppsw-5.csi.cam.ac.uk [131.111.8.135]) by www2.open-std.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5A63DC178D6 for ; Tue, 27 Jan 2009 00:28:15 +0100 (CET) X-Cam-AntiVirus: no malware found X-Cam-SpamDetails: not scanned X-Cam-ScannerInfo: http://www.cam.ac.uk/cs/email/scanner/ Received: from hermes-2.csi.cam.ac.uk ([131.111.8.54]:43624) by ppsw-5.csi.cam.ac.uk (smtp.hermes.cam.ac.uk [131.111.8.155]:25) with esmtpa (EXTERNAL:nmm1) id 1LRasG-0007kx-IT (Exim 4.70) (return-path ); Mon, 26 Jan 2009 23:28:12 +0000 Received: from prayer by hermes-2.csi.cam.ac.uk (hermes.cam.ac.uk) with local (PRAYER:nmm1) id 1LRasG-0008Dv-N0 (Exim 4.67) (return-path ); Mon, 26 Jan 2009 23:28:12 +0000 Received: from [83.67.89.123] by webmail.hermes.cam.ac.uk with HTTP (Prayer-1.3.1); 26 Jan 2009 23:28:12 +0000 Date: 26 Jan 2009 23:28:12 +0000 From: "N.M. Maclaren" To: MPI-3 Fortran working group , WG5 Subject: Re: [MPI3 Fortran] (j3.2006) (SC22WG5.3896) [ukfortran] [MPI3 Fortran] MPI non-blocking transfers Message-ID: In-Reply-To: <497E39C5.2030009@cray.com> References: <49776DF7.1040900@cray.com> <20090121211748.130A5C178D9@www2.open-std.org> <20090121224014.6CB63C178D9@www2.open-std.org> <20090121234200.4F3BDCA3434@www2.open-std.org> <20090122000407.D5A8ECA3434@www2.open-std.org> <20090122100652.C31E9CA3434@www2.open-std.org> <4978A8A0.8090407@cray.com> <20090122192735.C6453CA5FE6@www2.open-std.org> <497E39C5.2030009@cray.com> X-Mailer: Prayer v1.3.1 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset=ISO-8859-1 Sender: owner-sc22wg5@open-std.org Precedence: bulk On Jan 26 2009, Bill Long wrote: >> >Yes, but this is a concept from the days when MPI-like transfers >actually used the system's I/O hardware. Today that is increasing >archaic and misleading. Times change, and we should be willing to >change with them. A good place to start is getting rid of outdated >terminology. It helps people think more clearly about what is going >on. [BTW, when I started computing the only I/O was cards, line >printers, paper tape, magnetic tape, and disks.] MPI still does use the system I/O hardware on most systems. I/O over a TCP socket normally uses the same hardware as MPI. I/O is data transfer to or from an external location or agent, and a separate MPI process runs a separate Fortran program. And terminal connexions to computers date from 1955 - I don't know when computer-computer connexions started, but I believe that RJE was no later than about 1960. Regards, Nick Maclaren, University of Cambridge Computing Service, New Museums Site, Pembroke Street, Cambridge CB2 3QH, England. Email: nmm1@cam.ac.uk Tel.: +44 1223 334761 Fax: +44 1223 334679