The current release supports tcp/ip, via, and shared memory connections. Interprocess communication on a single machine is done through shared memory queues and communication between processes on separate machines is done through sockets or via. This is not considered an optimal implementation.  It is a correct implementation.

The code provided can be compiled using MS Visual C++ 6.0 and Visual Fortran 6.0.   The dlls provided have the C and Fortran, MPI 1.2 calls implemented including Romio but not C++.

Apr 9: temporary files no longer used at job startup, MPDUpdate tool now updates mpich dlls also
Apr 18: performance update, lower tcp latency, higher tcp bandwidth, separate rendezvous cutoff points for tcp and shm, -pwdfile option added to mpirun
May 9: mpd buffer overrun bug fixed, guimpirun password handling bug fixed, added more configuration options to mpiconfig, shortened installation name to simply MPICH,
            Added preliminary version of mpijob.  Job logging is not enabled by default and any user can kill any job.  The next version will be more selective.
May 14: mpd can catch unhandled exceptions, added -dbg option to mpirun to enable this capability, mpijob shows the address in the user code where the unhandled exception occurred.
May 16: added process exit timestamp to mpd and mpijob

Instructions to get MPICH up and running:

1) Install the MPICH.NT package on each machine in the cluster.

• mpich.nt.1.2.4.exe (5.34 MB May 16, 2002)

This package contains the runtime dlls, two mpirun launchers, the Visual C++ SDK, and the gcc SDK.   You must install at least the dlls and one launcher.  The sdk's are optional but necessary to compile applications.

Execute mpich.nt.1.2.4.exe to install on the local machine.  For instructions on installing on multiple machines over a network in unattended mode go here: Unattended install instructions  When setup is finished, it will add a sub menu to the Start=>Programs folder called MPICH.   In this folder you can find help pages for mpich and mpd and links to applications like MPIConfig.exe and guiMPIRun.exe.

• mpich.nt.1.2.4.src.exe (7.31 MB May 16, 2002)

This package contains the complete source code.  The MPICH source code contains the libraries and include files necessary to compile an mpi application plus all the source necessary to re-build the mpich dlls and launchers using MS Visual C++ 6 and Visual Fortran 6.  If you use this distribution instead of mpich.nt.1.2.x.exe you will not get a setup application.  You will need to go to the help pages found the www directory, ...\mpich\www\index.html, for instructions on installing mpich and mpd manually.

2) Compile an MPI application

After executing mpich.nt.1.2.x.exe, two SDK directories will be created

• SDK contains the libraries and include files necessary to compile an mpi application with MS Visual C++ 6 and/or Visual Fortran 6.

• SDK.gcc contains the libraries and include files necessary to compile an mpi application with gcc and/or g77.

3) Run an application.

• Each launcher provides an application launcher called MPIRun.exe.  Instructions can be found on the help pages provided with the launcher.
• If you installed using setup and selected all the defaults then these are the steps to get mpirun to work:
  1. After running setup on all the nodes,executeMPIConfig.exe(Start=>Programs=>MPICH=>mpd=>mpich configuration tool)
     • Select all the nodes where you installed mpich.
     • Click Apply.  This will set the hosts entry on all the nodes.
  2. Copy the application you compiled to the same directory on all the nodes or put it in a shared directory. (There are sample applications in the sdk\examples\nt directory)
  3. Execute "mpirun -np 4 \\somehost\someshare\myapp.exe" or "mpirun -np 6 c:\some\dir\myapp.exe"

Contact Info:

email bug reports to mpi-maint@mcs.anl.gov

David Ashton
ashton@mcs.anl.gov