OpenMP on networks of workstations for software DSMs

This paper describes the implementation of a sizable subset of OpenMP on networks of workstations (NOWs) and the source-to-source OpenMP compiler (AutoPar) is used for the JIAJIA home-based shared virtual memory system (SVM). The paper suggests some simple modifications and extensions to the OpenMP standard for the difference between SVM and SMP (symmetric multi processor), at which the OpenMP specification is aimed. The OpenMP translator is based on an automatic parallelization compiler, so it is possible to check the correctness of the semantics of OpenMP programs which is not required in an OpenMP-compliant implementation. AutoPar is measured for five applications including both programs from NAS Parallel Benchmarks and real applications on a cluster of eight Pentium II PCs connected by a 100Mbps switched Ethernet. The evaluation shows that the parallelization by annotating OpenMP directives is simple and the performance of generated JIAJIA code is still acceptable on NOWs.