Subject: data types and heterogeneity

From: "\ystein Gran Larsen" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 3 Feb 93 13:26:04 +0100

Hi,

I have read the minutes from the MPI meeting, January 6-8 1993. 
The section on message data types mentiones the use of XDR as a 
protocol for converting types between languages and machines. 

The standardization of Scalable Coherent Interface (SCI) has lead
to a proposed standard for "Shared-Data Formats Optimized for
Scalable Coherent Interface Processors", P1596.5.
[Working group P1596.5 is chaired by David V. James ([email-masked])]
This proposed standard may be of relevance to the MPI-initiative, 
when it comes to supporting heterogeneous machines.

-{\O}ystein

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From: Tony Skjellum <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 3 Feb 93 10:54:51 CST

XDR as currently implemented causes one function call per datum.  This
feature must be changed (loops moved inside fundamental converter
routines) to provide for better performance (less bandwidth impact of
converting data types).  I am eager to see the report mentioned by
Oystein.

- Tony