The Bulk Synchronous Parallel ML (BSML) library v 0.4

Description:

The BSML library is a functional programming library for the Objective Caml  language for direct-mode BSP (Bulk Synchronous Parallel) algorithms. It has been developped as part of our research program to investigate paradigms for functional parallel programming as special cases of standard semantics. The underlying assumption is that (efficient) parallel algorithms are special cases of (efficient) sequential algorithms and that using concurrent extensions of sequential languages to express them is both useless and harmful.

The first version of the BSML library was developped at the LIFO (Orléans University Computer Science Laboratory). Since version 0.2, the BSML library is developped at the LIFO and the LACL (Laboratory of Algorithms, Complexity and Logic, University Paris XII Val de Marne).

The changes in BSML v 0.26 w.r.t v 0.25 are internal changes to accomodate changes in the Objective Caml distribution.

BSML 0.4 supports two low-level communication libraries:

• It can use any MPI library. It is portable to any architecture which supports both Objective Caml and an MPI library
• It can use the TCP/IP communication of the Unix module of Objective Caml. In this case any architecture which supports Objective Caml is sufficient.

Online manual:

• BSMLlib 0.4 Reference Manual

Download:

• bsml-0.4.tar.gz
• bsml-0.4_manual.pdf
• bsml-0.4_manual_html.tar.gz

Learning BSML

• The BSML library is used for an introduction on parallel programming at the University of Orléans (in french)
• The BSML library is used for an introduction on parallel programming the University Paris XII Val de Marne.

Tests

Sucessfully installed and tested on the following machines (ocaml 3.10.2 or higher):

Links

• MPI Libraries:
  • The OPen MPI library
  • The MPICH library
  • The LAM/MPI library
• BSML Libraries:
  • The BSML library version 0.1
  • The BSML library version 0.2
  • The BSML library version 0.25
  • The BSML library version 0.26

History

• BSML v 0.4 released in October 2008
• BSML v 0.26 released in March 2007
• BSML v 0.25 released in March 2004
• BSML v 0.2 released in 2003
• BSML v 0.1 released in 2000