===============================================================================
===== Following was posted to comp.parallel.pvm =====
===== and mailed to those who requested PVM from netlib@ornl.gov by email ======
===== (did not include netlib accesses by ftp or Web or netlib mirror sites)===
===============================================================================
Date: Fri, 6 Jan 1995 19:51:45 -0500
From: pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu
Subject: PVM survey

Dear Colleague,
In order to improve PVM we are trying to understand how
people are using the system. Your feedback is important.
Could you take a moment to answer three questions.

Are you using PVM today?

What are your application(s)?

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

Your help is much appreciated.

Best wishes,
The PVM Project Team
===============================================================================
From: bunge@kokopelli.lanl.gov (Peter Bunge)

1. Are you using PVM today?
Yes

2. What are your application(s)?
Computational Fluid Dynamics, i.e.
3D-spherical high resolution modeling
of convection in the earth's mantle

3.How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
a) heterogenous cluster (2 SUN,1 HP,1 SGI, 1 DEC-ALPHA)
b) homogenous clusters(16 node IBM, 8 node HP, 8 node DEC-ALPHA)
c) massively parallel machines (Cray T3D, IBM SP2)

---------------------
comments and suggestions:
1) I would like to see a spawning routine, that can take
double precision input. This is useful, since I compile
my codes with double prec compiler flags and always have
problems when spawning my tasks.

2) I would like to see the number of pvm-routines kept limited. ;-)

3) My overall evaluation and experience with PVM ( I have
been using it for 2.5 years ) is extremely positive. Setting
the defacto standard for message passing and encouraging
network computing is one of the most helpful developments
in computational physics right now.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Hans-Peter Bunge

Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics ( IGPP )
Los Alamos National Laboratory & Geophysics Dept UC Berkeley

PHONE : (505) 665 2863 -> office;
FAX : (505) 665 3107

EMAIL : bunge@kokopelli.lanl.gov

Mail : IGPP , Los Alamos National Laboratory
 Mail Stop C 305
 Los Alamos, NM 87545
----------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: jhh@texaco.com (Joe H. Higginbotham)

 >Are you using PVM today?
 I am running PVM as I answer this message. The job is
 running over the network using 8 RS6K machines and
 2 SUN4 machines. The largest number of machines
 I've run on the network together is 40. These were
 a mixture of SGI's, SUN's, and IBM's. I generally
 run from 10 to 20 processors using PVM. Right now
 the code I'm most interested in running has some
 problem on the SGI's which is why they are not part
 of my current virtual machine.
 >
 >What are your application(s)?
 My applications are seismic processing programs. Right
 now I'm processing data from the North Sea to image
 a gas field at a depth of 3.5 Km. The image will be
 used to decide the extent of the field.
 >
 >How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 I've run 40 machines on a single problem. I use SGI's,
 SUN4's, and IBM's.
 >
 >Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
 >Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
 >
 - On shared memory multiprocessor machines it would be
 useful to be able to define a memory buffer which
 all the processors could access. For example if you
 are modeling waves traveling through a medium such
 as the earth it is inconvenient to have to keep a copy
 of the medium paramteres (velocity, density, etc.) in
 memory for each processor when they all share memory
 and could read these parameters from the same place.

 Joe Higginbotham, Texaco

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <don@neuronet.pitt.edu>

Dear PVM:

	This a reply to your survey request. We are
a group with offices throughout the Health Center of
the University of Pittsburgh including offices in

5 hospitals, the School of Engineering, and the medical
school.

	(1) Yes we are using PVM today and every day.

	(2) We are running one application at this time.
It is conceptually a client/server application. The servers
provide access to files which contain neurophysiological
data from surgical patients being monitored in the operating
room. Data is collected continuously, processed, and then
saved to the file about every 40 seconds. Each time new data
appears in a file. Any observer process (client) connected
to the virtual machine can access the data through the local
server process running on the machine on which the data is being
acquired.

The client processes run constantly, whether
they are in use or not. The data acquisition equipment includes
a workstation mounted in a wheeled instrumentation cart. When
a case is scheduled, a cart is wheeled into the operating room,
attached to the Ethernet running through the hospitals, and booted.
A script running on the base node (the node where PVM was started)
detects the booting node and spawns a pvmd and a server process on it.
 Using this approach we routinely run the same virtual machine
for many weeks at a time between halts.
	 This application using PVM primarily for its message
passing and dynamic group capabilities. The dynamic grouping is
used to provide several fault tolerance measures. We are currently
developing two computational applications which will utilize the
same client/server architectural approach. Because our machines
are constantly in use but produce mostly spare cycles, we hope
to use perhaps 20% - 50% of those cycles with PVM applications.
Both applications involve identification and display of time varying
data. The simpler one will be used in the operating room to reduce
the time required to provide feedback to the surgeon from 30-40 seconds
to 5-10 seconds. The second is an image processing application which
will be developed on our network and then ported to a network with
higher communication bandwidth, perhaps the ALPHA cluster at the
Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center.

	(3) Our virtual machine includes 30 - 40 HP9000/700 RISC
workstations and an SGI Personal IRIS. Several of the HP boxes are
off site: Mount Sinai Hospital (New York City), George Washington
University Hospital (Washington, D.C.), and the offices of Computational
Diagnostics Inc., a local private practice firm which provides
intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring in several community
hospitals in the Pittsburgh area. We also have a network of HP/Apollo
MC68040 workstations running the AEGIS operating system which are used
in the operating room. We are seeking a PVM port for this operating
system.

	COMMENTS and SUGGESTIONS: We are extremely pleased with PVM
and wish to express our gratitude to the developers and the government
agencies which support their work. We have had very little trouble and
have been able to generate production software for use in our large
clinical service is 2 man months based on PVM.
	We are of course highly concerned with fault tolerance, as our
applications are time critical and can be life critical. For the future
we would like to have a fault tolerant version of PVM, one which has the
which in
particular is tolerant to failure of any node in the virtual machine,
particularly the base node, i.e. the first one on which PVM is started.
Local caching of the virtual machine configuration at every pvmd along
with the planned static group function would make the package far more
robust in the face of base node failure as well as network segmentation.
It would also be helpful, although I suspect very difficult, to provide
a mechanism whereby two independent virtual machines could be merged into
one without having to halt one of them.
	Another improvement would be a threaded version of PVM.
	Finally, for optimization purposes, it might be worthwhile
to have a receive-in-place function (there is already send-in-place)
rather than having to unpack at the reading end.

Thank you again.

					Don Krieger
					(412)692-5093

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <don@neuronet.pitt.edu>

Dear PVM:

	Please add the following to the paragraph in our survey
response in which we discuss the life critical nature of our work.

:

We have been careful to construct the software so that life critical
 no potentially
critical function depends exclusively on PVM, but only of the software
n the software
running on the local workstation in the operating room.

					Thanks,

Don Krieger

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <u01ams@aberdeen.ac.uk>

: Are you currently using PVM?
Yes.

: What are your application(s)?
Mobile robot simulator under X, mobile robots are connect to the world
simulator via PVM, also using GNU Scheme with self written extensions
to the language to allow PVM to talk to the world interactively from a
Scheme top level.

: How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
Couple of Suns only.

: Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
Its wonderful :-)
Keep it coming.

: Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

: Your help is much appreciated.
Thank you indeed for such well documented software.

: Best wishes,
: The PVM Project Team

cheers,
al

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: laprade@dw3f.ess.harris.com (Ken Laprade)
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

> What are your application(s)?

Course-grained image processing algorithms written in C++.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Dozens of Sun's running SunOS 4.1.3 and 5.3, one 8-CPU SparcCenter 2000, a
few SGI Indy's and soon a SGI Challenge.

--
Ken Laprade			Email: klaprade@harris.com
Harris Corporation		Voice: (407)984-5727
PO Box 98000, MS W2/7744	 or: (407)984-6691
Melbourne, FL 32902
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: drahzal@c1south.convex.com (Matthew Drahzal)
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Yes- PVM is portable method to write parrallel apps...

>
> What are your application(s)?

Mostly Financial Analysis

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
mainly the Convex Exemplar, but have also used PA-RISC clusters and
Convex C-Series...

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

Keep up the good work.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Dwayne Car <m229708@ws1844.mdc.com>
>
> Are you using PVM today?

 Yes!

>
> What are your application(s)?

 CEM codes. Currently our high frequency codes CADDSCAT and
 CAVERN both use PVM. They are physical optics and ray trace
 based codes.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

 HP only. We may start using it on our Intel hypercube to
 maintain one version of the code. The most machines I have
 run on is 62 HP systems at one time. Please do not ask me
 to locate them.

>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

 We would like to use PVM on our low frequency CEM code CARLOS.
 It was used to win the Gorden Bell award this last year and is
 used by the EMCC (Electromagnetic Code Consortium). We just
 can't find an out-of-core LINPACK/LAPACK that works with PVM.
 Any suggestions? Does one exist?

 My only frustration during installation... pvm3/lib/pvm claims it
 will set PVM_ROOT to default to ~pvm3. A minor adjustment makes
 this work. I also stick the #!/bin/ksh at the top. The tilda does
 not work in the Bourne shell.

 My only frustration during use... Many times a host will be okay
 and the network will go away for just few minutes. It is unfortunate
 that a few minutes later the host is decleared dead and everything
 hangs. It would be nice such that even if the computer is declared
 dead, if it could come back to life and reattach to the virutal machine
 where it left off.

--
Dwayne D. Car Email: m229708@mail.mdc.com
Senior Project Engineer Email: m229708@mdcgwy.mdc.com
McDonnell Douglas Corporation Email: m229708@aello.mdc.com
P.O. Box 516 MC 064 2263 Phone: (314) 232-7103
St. Louis, MO 63166 Fax : (314) 232-7774
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: mhsmith@nas.nasa.gov (Merritt H. Smith)
>
> Are you using PVM today?
>
Yes. We have version 3.3.* installed on all of our systems.

>
> What are your application(s)?
>
Three-dimensional compressible viscous flow solution over complete
aircraft. Numerical aerodynamic optimization of complete aircraft.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
IBM PC (pentium): 4 systems running Free BSD connected by Ethernet.
SGI Workstations, HP Workstations: 30+ systems.
IBM SP2: 160 nodes.
Cray C90: Used PVM in place of multi-tasking (works well, but uses
 too much memory to be useful)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
|Merritt H. Smith | Bug-free code, |
|Applied Computational Aerodynamics Branch | Rapid convergence, |
|MS 258-1 | Peace on Earth, |
|NASA Ames Research Center | A dependable Jaguar. |
|Moffett Field, CA 94035 | |
| | |
|mhsmith@nas.nasa.gov (415)604-4493 | Is that too much to ask? |
|http://www.nas.nasa.gov/~mhsmith/home.html | |
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: ptn@chevron.com (Phuong T. Nguyen)

>Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

> What are your application(s)?

With MCNP code from Los Alamos Lab.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

IBM RS/6000 ~7
HP 735 2

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: dianne@cbi5.cbi.com (Dianne Marsh)

> Are you using PVM today?
Yes.

> What are your application(s)?
Human Genome Project -- Sequence Analysis

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
We use SUN workstations but are planning to port to other
UNIX environments. It is also likely that we will incorporate
some other architectures (e.g. MasPar). We have combined
Solaris 1 and Solaris 2 machines and have used up to 20
machines in a distributed fashion.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <idvi8.office/G=James/S=Giles/DD=idvi8.office@mhs-tva.attmail.com>

Are you using PVM today? No, but I've used it recently.

What are your application(s)? Optimization (expected values) and PDE's.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM? 4 to 6 Sun
workstations.

Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

Installation was a bit clumsy for a user who's not a systems person.

The manual didn't have a complete (or any, in some cases) description of
certain commands.

The daemons on host machines were difficult to exorcise.

{It's still a great addition to the modeling community. Keep up the good
work.}

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
James E. Giles Phone (615) 632-1980 Fax (615) 632-1840
TVA Engineering Lab, LAB 1A-N x.400:/c=us/admd=attmail/prmd=gov+tva/
P.O. Drawer E s=Giles/g=Jim/dd.id=idvi8.office/
126 Pine Road Internet:tva!idvi8.office@mhs.attmail.com
Norris, TN 37828
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: meiji!kendo!adc@uunet.uu.net (Alan Cabrera)
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

> What are your application(s)?

Parallel path integration.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

50 SPARCstations 2, 10, and 20s.

Alan D. Cabrera Email: adc@sanwaBGK.com
Sanwa Financial Products Co., L.P. Phone: (212) 407-3591
55 East 52 Street - 26th Floor FAX: (212) 758-9552
New York, NY 10055

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <binu@everest.radiology.uiowa.edu>

PVM Survey Reply:

> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

>
> What are your application(s)?

We are using it to parallelise Computed Tomography (CT) Reconstruction based
on algebraic reconstruction technique (ART).

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

3 Sun SparcII running SunOS 4.1.3
3 Sun SparcII running Solaris 2.3
2 HP-UX.

Thank you,
Binu John.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: sanz@lace01.lerc.nasa.gov (Jose Sanz)

 Please, disregard previous e-mail if you received it.

 Yes, I use PVM now on a routine manner.

 My application is " Aerodynamic Inverse Design and Analysis for a Full
 Engine".
 I use PVM to run this application on two CRAY C90s. My host is an IBM
 RS6K-590.
 I use PVMe on an IBM SP2-160 nodes at NASA Ames. After a problematic
 installation of PVMe on the SP2 ( it was creating a lot of orphan jobs)
 now runs excellently.

 The use on the C90s is rather interactive, whereby I spwan processes
 from my RS6K host on either C90 as needed. Mostly, this processes run
 almost independently of each other and with practicly no limit on the
 number of processes that I am running. ( Among other things PVM has
 resulted to be an excellent scheduler).

 On the SP2 I run parallel jobs that require large internode
 comunications. SP2 runs those jobs on dedicated time. The internode
 comunication overhead I fund to be very reasonable for the problem
 I am solving.

 Congratulations for an excellent piece of work.

 I can expand, or send you some results on the SP2 if you are

 interested.

	 J. Sanz
	 NASA Lewis Research Center

	 (216) 433-5917

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: ytassa@fluids4.rdd.lmsc.lockheed.com (Y. Tassa)

I am using the PVM and the applications are flow field,and fluid/structure codes
primerily two kinds of machines Dec 5000 workstations and SGI .
I would like to get detailed doc. on the recent PVM version.
Y.Tassa

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Terry Purnell <purn@arl.mil>

1) Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

2) What are your application(s)?

Real-time distributed interactive combat simulations.

3) How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

20+

Sun (SPARC 10, LX), SGI (Indigo, Elan, Onyx),
SGI Challenge Cluster, CM-5, SP2.

4) Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

I frequently have to run demonstrations on experimental
network and hardware configurations. My team
has been actively developing distributed processing
applications using PVM for over a year and the most difficulty
we have had associated with PVM is getting it to start-up
properly on the distributed architecture under the
experimental network. Since I am required to develop software
for use by researchers who aren't very familiar (or patient)
with distributed processing what we could really use are
good tools for diagnosing PVM start-up problems.

Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

Terry Purnell
U.S. Army Research Laboratory
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: baker@jake.plk.af.mil (Lou Baker)

Are you using PVM today?
YES.

What are your application(s)?
PSPH, a parallel smoothed particle hydrodynamics code.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
Mostly on SP-2 at Maui hpcc.
Have run problems with approx 1/2 million particles for
many hours simulating large impacts and explsions.

Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

Daemons die when NFS at maui goes down. This creates problems
as the NFS ons the SP-2 seems to be somewhat unstable.
The result is the program dies (with Signal 15).

However, the job appears to be suspended, with resources tied up.
It appears(?) that pvmcleanup may not cancel/remove all the
suspended processes, thus inconveniencing other users.
(The last two sentences are based upon the report of
another user.)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: mwtraha@sandia.gov (1241 Michael W. Trahan)

Are you using PVM today?
	Yes.

What are your application(s)?
	Particle-in-a-cell codes (physics).

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
	IBM RS-6000			2 to 4
	Sun SPARCstation 10 and 20	10 to 15
	Sun SPARCserver 1000		8 CPUs
	IBM SP2				2 to 256 nodes
	Intel Paragon			2 to 128 nodes

Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
	The ability to use IBM PC-compatibles in the virtual machine would be
	useful, especially during development.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Burke Murray <hedmips!burke@uunet.uu.net>

Are you using PVM today?

Yes

What are your application(s)?

Computational Fluid Dynamics (Panel Method)

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Only the Cray (YMP to T3D) so far, but I hope to use PVM with networked
workstations in the future.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: krishnan@beavis.bnpi.com (Krishnan Ethirajan)

Are you using PVM today?
Yes.

What are your application(s)?
Quantum Mechanics/Statistical Mechanics - Molecular Modeling.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
30 Machines, IBM RS/6000.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: jmckir@uwaf.nswc.navy.mil (John B. McKirgan)

Are you using PVM today?

	Yes.

What are your application(s)?

	I am using an application developed by the Department of
	Energy (Sandia National Labs). The application is called
	PCTH. It is a eulerian hydrocode we use to model shock
	physics and impact dynamics problems.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

	The only kind of machine has been Hewlett Packard 700 series
	workstations. The number of machines varies from 4 to 8.

Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

	Let me start with my compliments. PVM so far as been a
	solid package that installed with ease. The only problem
	I had was in compiling the example problem "xep". I did
	not have some of the include files (Toggle.h, Form.h etc.)

	Though, in all honesty, I did not spend a great deal of time
	on it.

	My main concern with PVM is it's continued funding. I am
	now at a point in planning future hardware purchases where
	I have to decide whether to pursue a low-end massively
	parallel machine "OR" continue to accumulate workstations. 
	My budget does not allow for both. Much of the software
	I have been seeing that does my kind of problems, is
	developed on MP machines like the Intel Paragon. If the
	software isn't ported to PVM, I've got a problem. Further,
	I'm not a big enough player to force these software
	developers to make the ports. I have spoken to my hardware
	vendors (HP, Digital). My sales reps are not familiar with
	PVM; which is disturbing. I guess you could summarize this
	as a technology transfer concern.

	For now, PVM is the way for me to run problems to big to
	fit on one machine.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: ram@eniac.cf.com (Ram Pandit)
Subject: Re: PVM survey

 Following are the answeres to your questions :

 1. Currently, we are not using PVM. I used it to implement a Branch-and
 Bound algorithm for learning purposes. However, we are excited about
 PVM and whenever the opportunity arises, we shall use it.

 2. Most of applications are large-scale mixed integer programming
 problems.
 For example, Airlines Fleet-Planning, Truck dispatching etc.

 3. At present we have two RISC/6000-580 machines hooked together.

 So far, I have a very limited experience with PVM to really offer
 you any significant suggestion.
 However, thanks for PVM its a great tool.

-----------------------------------------------------
Ram Pandit
Sr. Systems Engineer
Intelligent Systems Engineering
Consolidated Freightways, Inc.
P.O. Box 6696
Portland, OR 97208-6696

Wk: (503) 499-3114
Fax: (503) 499-3947

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: pbd@winternet.com (Paul Dokas)

> Are you using PVM today?

 yes

> What are your application(s)?

 learning to program in a parallel environment

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

 3 machines: Sun, NetBSD on a PC, SGI

paul
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Maciej Kormicki - EECS (EE476)" <mkormick@eecs.wsu.edu>
>
> Are you using PVM today?
> Yes, I am using PVM.

> What are your application(s)?
> I am using PVM for my research which is "parallel logic simulation on a
network of workstations using PVM"

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
> So far I used simultaneously 4 machines. I am using HP workstations.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: og845@carbon.pnl.gov (Edoardo Apra)

I am not using PVM at the moment, but I could use it again in the future.

I used pvm3.2 with Crystal92 (a solid-state quantum chemistry code)

I used pvm with the following architectures:
RS6K, HP, SGI, DEC alpha, Convex, Cray C90

	Regards, Edoardo Apra`
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jyan Hong-Wei <jyan@fsl.noaa.gov>

> Are you using PVM today?

	No.
>
> What are your application(s)?

	Try to build up a distribute and transparent computation environment
	for our users, who are not familiar with computer.
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

	Currently, we only got 9 workstations and mainframe to run PVM.
	Those include 3 HP, 1 Sun, 1 SGI, 1 Dec, 1 Dec-Alpha, and 2 Cray.
	After we can understand the PVM totally, we will install it over our
	whole network system.

	Thanks.

--
+----------------------------------------+-------------------------------+
| Name: Hong-Wei ( Howard ) Jyan | |
| e-mail: howard@gwya.cwb.gov.tw | "A city is a large community |
| Org.: Central Weather Bureau / CWB, | where people are lonesome |
| Taiwan, ROC. | together..." |
| Div.: System Control Section. | |
| Phone: +886-2-3491288 | |
+----------------------------------------+-------------------------------+
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Larry Wickstrom <Larry_Wickstrom@ccm.jf.intel.com>

Are you using PVM today?
No.

What are your application(s)?
Video Compression

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
5 SGI Indigo machines

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Steve Johnson <Steve.Johnson@math.tamu.edu>

Are you using PVM today?
Yes

What are your application(s)?
Monte Carlo simulations of 2D and 3D magnetic systems

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
32 Sun SS10
32 HP 735

 Steve Johnson E-mail: Steve.Johnson@math.tamu.edu
 Unix Systems Manager Phone: (409) 845-0261
 Dept of Mathematics FAX: (409) 845-6028
 Texas A&M University
 College Station, TX 77843-3368

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: hicup@fatman.tamu.edu (Hagop Barsamian)

To whom it may concern,

In response to the three questions:

-- I am currently not using PVM.

-- I have used PVM on an HP Apollo series (720) and a SUN Spark 10
 workstations.

From: Stas Polonsky <stas@elsa.physics.sunysb.edu>

>Are you using PVM today?

>What are your application(s)?

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

>Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
>Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

>Your help is much appreciated.

Q1: Yes.
Q2: Optimization of superconductor digital electronics circuits.
Q3: 3 HP 700, 1 SGI Indy

--
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| Stas V. Polonsky, Ph.D. | Internet: stas@rsfq1.physics.sunysb.edu |
| Physics Department, | Voice: (516)632-8060 |
| SUNY - Stony Brook, | Fax: (516)632-8774 |
| Stony Brook, NY 11794-3800 | |
| U.S.A. | |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: rnagaraj@cne.gmu.edu (Sai Ravi Nagarajan)

Are you using PVM today?

	Yes.

What are your application(s)?

	Distributed scheduling algorithms, performance measurements, etc.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

	Upto a maximum of 32 workstations. Usually use Sun and HP workstations.

Ravi Nagarajan.
Dept of CS,
George Mason University,
Fairfax, VA 22030.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Mohamed Iskandarani <mohamed@ahab.rutgers.edu>
>
> Are you using PVM today?
Yes I am. I do not use it on a daily basis, but we have a code that
relies on PVM.

> What are your application(s)?
We have a spectral element code to solve the shallow water
equations. Our main focus is basin-scale ocean modeling.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
The code runs on the nCUBE 2 and on the T3D. The orginal
parallelization was carried out on an nCUBE 2 since our university owns
one, and we have unlimited access to it at no charge. The message
passing was based on the nCUBE's native message passing library. We
ported the code to the T3D and decided to base the message passing on
PVM. Our code is not 100% portable since we rely on Cray call
(fast_send and fast_receive) to bypass the slow PVM calls.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Hemant Rotithor <hemant@ee.WPI.EDU>

1. yes
2. distributed branch and bund
3. cluster of alpha stationsdecstations
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "William T. Rankin" <wrankin@ee.duke.edu>

> Dear Colleague,

I guess you mean me... :-)

> In order to improve PVM we are trying to understand how
> people are using the system. Your feedback is important.
> Could you take a moment to answer three questions.

No problem.

> Are you using PVM today?

Yes. In fact, as I type this I am.

> What are your application(s)?

Personally, I have used PVM for the following applications.

 1) Molecular Dynamics - As part of an NSF "Grand Challenge" Grant,
 we have used PVM to implement various multipole algorithms
 for solving large N-body interaction problems. The resulting
 libraries have been succesfully integrated into the NAMD
 Moleculer Dynamics package from UIUC (which also runs under PVM)
 Hopefully, in the new few months, we will have the XPLOR MD
 package from Yale use these codes.

 2) As part of my Masters research, I implemented distrributed codes to
 identify numerical sequences known as Golomb Rulers. This search
 could be likened to a prime number search. I implemented a fault
 tolerant, restartable parallel code which ran for over three months
 on a network of 27 workstations and discoversd a new unknown sequence.

 3) A proof-of-concept project implementing Active Messages under
 PVM using Unix signals.

In addition to my own work, I support the installation ov the PVM
package for the EE department here at duke, where it is used by gradutes
and undergraduates for classes and research.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

I have run PVM on the following platforms, and use most of them
regularly.

 1) A cluster of Sun workstations under Solaris 2.3 and ethernet
 2) A group of IBM RS6000
 3) A cluster of HP 735's with ATM
 4) A Cray T3D (32 proc and a 512 proc)
 5) A 486 clone under Linux. (My home machine)

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

(Active Messages ;-)

> Best wishes,
> The PVM Project Team

Regards,

-bill

---- / __/ / /
bill rankin / / /
wrankin@ee.duke.edu ___ / / / /
philosopher/coffee-drinker / / / / /
molecules-R-us / / / / /
 _______/ __/ __/ __/

"All I wanna do is have a little fun before I die." - Sheryl Crow
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: BHASKAR <WNBHASKAR@VAX2.Winona.MSUS.EDU>

We are using PVM in our Distributed systems course for developing simple
projects. We use LINUX on PCs, RS/6000, and possibly VMS and Ultrix on
VAXs.

Will send suggestions as I - professor of CS in Winona State University, CS
Dept. - put them together.

PVM has been quite useful for us - thank you.

Sudharsan Iyengar
(507) 457-5539
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: sliu@spectra.eng.hawaii.edu (Sheng Liu)

> Are you using PVM today?
No. But I used PVM last spring.
>
> What are your application(s)?
Vector quantization using Kohonen self-organizing feature map.
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
about 10 Sun workstations
>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Dr. Eric C. Frey" <frey@bme.unc.edu>
>
> Are you using PVM today?
Yes.
>
> What are your application(s)?
We are doing 3D image reconstruction for single-photon emission computed
tomography.
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
We are using DEC Alphas and DECstations. We have a few stardent computers
but haven't been able to get it to run on them. We recently bought an
HP computer, but haven't ported our stuff to it yet.

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
>
My student has been doing the programing so I can't make a lot of
comments about this. I will forward it to him.
===============================================================================
Eric C. Frey Phone: 919-966-6729
Research Assistant Professor Fax: 919-966-2963
Department of Biomedical Engineering and e-mail: frey@bme.unc.edu
Department of Radiology
The University of North Carolina
152 MacNider Hall, CB 7575
Chapel Hill, NC 27599
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <jag@cs.rochester.edu>
>
> Are you using PVM today?
Yes.
>
> What are your application(s)?
Robotics and machine vision, having a distributed pvm program govern
many real time processes controlling robots and vision HW.
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
Sun sparc 2000 (8 proc), 12 & 8 proc SGI 480, and single processor
servers and workstations in our network.
>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
The shared memory version for Sun solaris used shmemget with ID #1
or 2 or something stupid like that. Of course we had other programs
just as badly written using the same ID#, inadvertedly adressing the
same memory. Caused spectacular crashes before we corrected it.

Better debugging aids are always welcome. We haven't been able to
spawn pvm processes in a debugger window for some unknown reason.

An email address list of users who struggle with real time applications,
and maybe some sample real time type software for different systems
availible by ftp would be great.

/m
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: jbm@speedy.login.qc.ca (John McCluskey)
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Not at the moment. In the future, perhaps.

>
> What are your application(s)?

I took a class at McGill University in Parallel Processing, and used PVM
for a programming assignment where I implemented the Chandy-Misra-Hauss
deadlock detection algorithm. It was surprisingly easy with PVM. When
I get more time, I'll probably use PVM for implementation of parallel
Monte-Carlo simulations on the workstation network where I work.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

single host Intel 486 pc-clone running Linux.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Steven M. Gallo" <smgallo@cs.Buffalo.EDU>
>
> Are you using PVM today?
>

Yes, but currently only a specialized version that Cray Research has
implemented for use on their MPP T3D.

> What are your application(s)?

Molecular structure determination.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>

Cray T3D, but I have been considering downloading it to test on a network
of Linux boxes.

Steve Gallo
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: attilio@di.unito.it (Attilio Giordana)

Are you using PVM today? YES

What are your application(s)?

 We are developing distributed genetic Algorithms. In particular we have
 a learning system "REGAL" which is based on PVM.
 We are distributing it by ftp "pianeta.di.unito.it (anonymous)

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 We use our system in two sites:
 (a) a LAN of several SparcStations.
 (b) a CM5 in Paris (through internet)
Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
 We found the system quite delicate under CM5. If you
 are interested we could start a discussion. In any case REGAL
 at least works on it!!!!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: yuexia@spectra.eng.hawaii.edu (Yuexia Liao)
>
> Are you using PVM today?
 No. I used it last year for my master thesis
>
> What are your application(s)?
 compare load balancing schemes
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 20, including SUN Spac, HP300, HPPA workstations
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: David Grimshaw <dgrimsha@scs.Ryerson.CA>

Dear PVM Project Team,
Thank you for soliciting my opinion. Unfortunately, I don't have much
information to send since I am a rank newbie for PVM.

We have so far not taught any parallel computing at Ryerson Polytechnic
University (Toronto). I obtained PVM after seeing the news group on
netnews. Started 'fooling around' with it Dec 94.

To answer your questions,

1) use: teaching (potentially)
2) applications: student undergrad thesis projects (potentially)
3) Installations
	i) Sun Sparcstation multiprocessor (4) system SunOS 5.3
	(Seems to only like running one pvmd3 per processor)
	ii) Sun single processor Sparc with SunOS 5.3
	iii) IBM RS6000 Aix 3.2, one processor.
The above systems are at the University and linked by a fibre optic
backbone. Have run some of the PVM demos.
	iv) i486 running Linux
	v) i386 running Linux
These two are linked (at home) via an ethernet connection.

Regards,
David Grimshaw
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Anshu Aggarwal <anshu@tigger.cs.colorado.edu>

> Are you using PVM today?
--
I was till last month

> What are your application(s)?
--
1) Benchmarking applications to measure communication timings between processes.
2) Large scale aerodynamic code to study the effects of fluid turbulence on
aircraft structures.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
--
SPARC Stations, Dec ALPHAs, KSR-1, Cray T3D, CM-5, Intel Paragon.

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
--
There are numerous issues that arose upon porting of applications to the
multiprocessors, primarily dealing with how processes were spawned on the
different processors and with the pecularities of the implementation of PVM on
that machine (PVM was not completely portable from one multiprocessor to
another).
We also did not have much success in distributing the applications over the
different multiprocessors and having them communicate with each other.
It was also unclear how good the implementation of PVM was on the different
multiprocessors since sometimes there was a significant difference in
performance between a PVM program and a program written using the native
message-passing calls.

If you have any further questions, please dont hesitate to contact me at
anshu@cs.colorado.edu

-anshu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Al Bessey <bessey@CCSF.Caltech.EDU>
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Yes, in relation to my masters thesis.

> What are your application(s)?

Parallelizing the Lagrangian Particle Dispersion Model.
Basically, the code tracks a cloud of pollutants through
the atmosphere, given atmospheric data from RAMS. (Regional
Atmospheric Modelling System.)

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

I have used an isloated ethernet network of 7 IBM RS/6000 workstations,
and am currently trying to port the code to the Intel Paragon. The
port is being held up by my code, not PVM.

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

There are many codes still using PVM 2.4 and you should continue
to publish the 2.4 to 3.x.y conversion sheets, possibly as a section
in the users' guide. I was lucky enough to have an old copy of
the conversion sheet in an old folder, but I would bet many are not
that lucky.

BTW - I received 4 copies of this message.

Al Bessey

--
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 For lack of a Dream...his life was lost.......

 When a man knows not the harbor for which he is headed,
 no wind is the right one for his sails.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
| Al Bessey - Intel PSE | E-Mail: bessey@ssd.intel.com |
| California Institute of Technology | Office: (818) 356 - 0335 |
| 1201 E. California Blvd | FAX : (818) 584 - 5917 |
| M/S 158-79 | Pager : (800) SKYPAGE Pin:870-3437 |
| Pasadena, CA 91125 | |
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: alves@mercurio.uc.pt (Alexandre Alves)
>
>Are you using PVM today?
I am not a common PVM user: I am developing a PVM API for MS Windows (16/32).

>What are your application(s)?
We will see in the future, but now I am thinking just about benchmarks.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
Just a few PCs (80x86 based).

Best wishes,
 Alex
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alexandre A. R. Alves
Departamento de Eng. Informatica tel: 351.39.7000000 (global)
Universidade de Coimbra tel: 351.39.7000072 (direct)
Polo II tel: 1236 (local)
Vila Franca- Pinhal de Marrocos	 fax: 351.39.701266
3030 COIMBRA - PORTUGAL email:alves@pandora.uc.pt
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: j killough <johnk@lnic6.hprc.uh.edu>

We are using PVM for parallel finite difference codes for flow in porous
media. The primary platforms are IBM/RS6000's of various sorts (550,560,
590). The only complaint I have is that at least in version 3.1, it is
not straightforward to redirect the output from the parallel tasks. I
would prefer the ability to direct the output from a parallel task to any
given dataset. This is particularly useful in debugging. Is the x version
of pvm stable at this point? When I discussed this with someone in July,
there were still a few bugs.

Thanks,

John Killough
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Ahmed Ouenes <ouenes@baervan.nmt.edu>
Response to pvm-survey

1)Yes I am using PVM today more than ever

2)Geoscience applications
 Reservoir Characterization
 Reservoir History Matching using Numerical Simulators
 Parallel Optimization Algorithms

3) I used 6 IBM RISC 600 (590), HP 9000-735, SUN SPARC 10

 I have comments but they are too long to write in an e-mail

 I have also couple of papers describing briefly my applications
 and the way I am using PVM. Feel free to use these references for
 anything that may support and encourage the use of PVM.

Ref 1. Ouenes Ahmed, Srinivasa Bhagavan, Peter H. Bunge, and Brian Travis:
 Application of Simulated Annealing and Other Global Optimization
 Methods to Reservoir Description: Myths and Realities
 paper SPE 28415 presented at the Society of Petroleum Engineers Annual
 Technical Conference and Exhbition, New Orleans, 25-28 Spetember 1994.

Ref 2. Ouenes Ahmed, William Weiss, Ahmad J. Sultan, and Jabed Anwar:
 Parallel Reservoir Automatic History Matching Using a Network of
 Workstations and PVM
 paper SPE 29107 presented at the 1995 Society of Petroleum Engineers
 Symposium on Reservoir Simulation, San Antonio TX February 12-15.

 Good Luck PVM team, I am looking forward to see more good stuff

 Dr. Ahmed Ouenes |
 Petroleum Recovery Research Center |
 New Mexico Tech |
 Socoro New Mexico NM 87801 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Tuneyasu Komiya <komiya@katura.tutics.tut.ac.jp>

 > Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

 > What are your application(s)?

We are using PVM to implement distributed parallel Scheme
and Common Lisp.

 > How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Up to 45 SPARCstations and a LUNA88K2.

--
 Tsuneyasu Komiya
 Toyohashi University of Technology
 E-Mail: komiya@katura.tutics.tut.ac.jp
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Milan Hodoscek <milan@kihp6.ki.si>
 >
 > Are you using PVM today?

 Yes
 >
 > What are your application(s)?

Molecular dynamics CHARMM (see http://www.ki.si/parallel.html)
 >
 > How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

HPPA to develop program for CSPP. CSPP is hard to deal with!
 >
 > Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

Great library. But I miss some more simplicity: The way CHARMM
was parallelized is by using four routines:
Get number of nodes
Get number of my node
send
receive

So it usually takes few hours to get it run on any parallel platform,
but it took me few days to read the whole documentation (which is very
well written - I read PVM book - thanx) and copy examples from the
book to the program.

Sincerely yours
--

Milan Hodoscek (http://www.ki.si)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Jeff A. Earickson" <jeff@ithaca.ccs.ornl.gov>
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Only occasionally, as I have to maintain it.
>
> What are your application(s)?

Usually just the pvm examples.
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Sun and Paragon.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: moyers@mcdgs01.cr.usgs.gov (Jamie Moyers)

> Are you using PVM today?

 Yes.

> What are your application(s)?

 The USGS is scanning its 1:24000 scale topographic maps at 500 dpi. These
 maps are then downsampled and georeferenced to a UTM grid. We're using
 applications built on PVM to perform the georeferencing and browse
 image generation.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

 Almost exclusively Data General Aviions. We have over 100 workstations
 at this site. These are split up into clusters of 10 workstations
 for the PVM applications.

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

 PVM is great! We've been able to develop some very useful systems
 based on it. Keep doing what you're doing.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Limor Schweitzer <limor@elron.net>

I'm using, at times dmake which is a parralel make based on pvm.
I've given a 3 day course on pvm.
Customers of ours are developping air-flow simulation on
Dec-APX clusters, using pvm.

Hope this helps, and I would appreciate seeing some of the results of
your survey.

Limor Schweitzer (limor@xpert.com)
Xpert Unix Systems LTD.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: vb1890@PLAY.CS.NYU.EDU (Victor Boyko)

 pvm-survey> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

 pvm-survey> What are your application(s)?

Computer simulation of atomic structure of the high-temperature
superconductor Y Ba Cu O.

 pvm-survey> How many and what kind of machines have you used with
 pvm-survey> PVM?

Usually about five SGI5's. Sometimes SUN4's and RS6K's.

-Victor
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Fedor G. Pikus" <pikus@sbphy.physics.ucsb.edu>
>
> Are you using PVM today?
Yes.
>
> What are your application(s)?
Monte-Carlo modeling of stronly interacting many-electron systems
(quantum dots, coulomb liquids).
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
Cluster of RS6000 with Ethernet and FDDI, Meiko, Paragon.
>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
Write a working version for Paragon!!!
And global operations wpould be nice.

--
 Fedor G. Pikus

6113 Broida Hall 312 Ellwood Beach Dr. #18
Department of Physics Goleta, California 93117
University of California home phone: (805) 968-3361
Santa Barbara, California 96103 office phone: (805) 893-4072
e-mail: pikus@physics.ucsb.edu FAX : (805) 893-8422
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Mark Edwards <edwards@bruce.nist.gov>

Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

> What are your application(s)?

I am part of team here at NIST involved in the creation of the NIST
Parallel Applications Development Environment (PADE). This program
employs a graphical user interface under X-windows to allow parallel
applications developers using PVM to write complex parallel apps.
Programmers can edit/compile/run and debug their PVM applications while
staying within the same environment.

More info about the PADE can be found on the World-Wide-Web at

http://physics.nist.gov/ResOpp/hpcc/pade.html

for even more info you can email me (Mark Edwards) at

edwards@bruce.nist.gov

We are considering a release in early Feb., 1995

-mark edwards
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: panwar@CS.UCLA.EDU (Ramesh Panwar)

> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

> What are your application(s)?

Medical imaging: wavelet compression, image segmentation,
image registration, volumetric image rendering, blood flow
modeling etc.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

SUNs for developing test codes. UCLA Medical Center is in the process
of purchasing a parallel machine.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Sinisa Veseli <veseli@phenxf.physics.wisc.edu>

1. Yes

2. Solving physics problems.

3. I've been using pvm with F90 on the NEXT
machines (25 machines). There were
several pvm bugs that I had to fix in order
to make it work with F90 compiler. If you are interested,
feel free to contact me.

	S. Veseli
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Michael Rezny <mr@spline.maths.uq.oz.au>

> Are you using PVM today?
ANSWER: Yes I use pvm extensively.

> What are your application(s)?
ANSWER: Spatial modelling utilising a client - server approach.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
ANSWER: Workstations : Silicon Graphics ( 2),
 Sun (>20),
 DEC Alpha ( 3),
 Supercomputers : Cray YMP/2D ( 1),
 YMP/4E ( 1),
 MPP : Intel Paragon ( 1),
 IBM SP2 ( 1).

regards
Mike Rezny
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: David Chasman <chasman@chem.columbia.edu>
 >
 > Are you using PVM today?

	yes.
 >
 > What are your application(s)?

	a platform independent scalable electronic structure
	code.
 >
 > How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

	about 5
 >
 > Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

	A shared counter would be VERY helpful.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Emilio Gallicchio <emilio@chem.columbia.edu>

Yes, I'm currently using PVM.
My application is Monte Carlo simulation
of quantum liquids.
I'm using PVM locally on a network of IBM RISC6000
workstations for debugging purposes and remotely on a IBM SP2 machine for
production runs (although I plan to implement MPL on this last machine).

Emilio Gallicchio
Department of Chemistry
Columbia University
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: zdenko@harvey.cam.rice.edu (Zdenko Tomasic)

>Are you using PVM today?
yes.

>What are your application(s)?
large sparse symmetric matrix diagonalization

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
sun, cray t3d

>Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
make sure when vendors claim to have implemented PVM to really
implement everything and not just a convenient subset, e.g.
t3d pvm fakes a dozen pvm calls returning error and considers
pvmfadvise an unsatisfied external.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Xiaoguang Zhang ~{UEO~9b~} <zhang@whbws.ms.ornl.gov>

> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.
>
> What are your application(s)?

First principles calculations as well as small model calculations.
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

10 IBM RS/6000
IBM SP2.
>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
>
Paths for input and output files should be specified at the
console or in the hostfile. The current version puts the input and
output files in the HOME directory and is very inconvenient.

For example, in FORTRAN if unit 8 is written to without an
open statement, a file 'fort.8' is created. It is very bad to
put this in one's HOME directory. Many programs that are ported
from serial versions will have this kind of write statements
in them, and it would be helpful to be able to put them in a
subdirectory specified by the user.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Anthony Fiarito <alf@ee.pdx.edu>

>Are you using PVM today?

 YES.

>What are your application(s)?

 POVRAY (Persistence of Vision Ray Tracer)

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

 50+ Sun SPARCStations (SunOS 4.1.x & SunOS 5.4)
 5 SGI Indy Workstations (Irix 5.2)

/\nthony

---
Anthony Fiarito alf@ee.pdx.edu
Computer Action Team http://www.ee.pdx.edu/~alf
Portland State University Chaos. Live it. Learn it. Be it.
Project KPSU 1450AM - Least Significant Digit - Saturdays - 11pm to 12a
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Mr. Package" <pkg@leopard.cs.byu.edu>

> Are you using PVM today?

No. It turned out PVM was overkill for my small project.
I plan on using PVM for some other work in the future, however.

> What are your application(s)?

Visual Recognition; exploring ATM networking.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

HP9000 7xx, between 5 and 15.

I hope the survey results are useful,
Kelly
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: debra@cs.unr.edu (Debra Estabrook)

I am not currently using PVM. I used it in the past on fractals and used
DECstations as my machines.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jon A Webb <webb+@cmu.edu>

I'm using PVM on an SP2, as the message-passing layer for an HPF-variant
compiler (the CMU Fx compiler). -- J

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: symes@masc39.rice.edu (William Symes)
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

>
> What are your application(s)?

Inverse problems in seismology

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

1) Ethernet connected cluster of IBM RS6K/370s
2) " " " " HP 735s
3) Cray C90 - pvm task distribution on top of autotasking,
very effective on dedicated machine

>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
>

A problem in the past has been the necessity to use independent
instrumentation (alog, upshot). xpvm may have taken care of this.
will know when we have used it more extensively.

Will pass this on to other members of my group for comment.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Susan Feingold <ccasuzi@techunix.technion.ac.il>

1. We are in the process of installing PVM.

2. Our applications are a mix of engineering and pure science codes.

3. We are currently installing PVM on an SMP 6 processor, shared memory
DEC/APX Alpha 7000/660. We might also use it in a heterogeneous mix of
Computer Center servers, including two Hyundai Axil 311/5.2's (Sun clones)
and two RS/6000's, and of course the DEC Alpha.

- ~~ - ~~ - ~~ - ~~ - ~~ - ~~ - ~~ - ~~ - ~~ - ~~ - ~~ - ~~ - ~~ - ~~ - ~~ - ~~
Susan Feingold D.Sc. ccasuzi@techunix.technion.ac.il
Taub Computer Center phone 972-4-293696
Technion, Israel Institute of Technology fax 972-4-236212
Haifa, Israel 32000
- ~~ - ~~ - ~~ - ~~ - ~~ - ~~ - ~~ - ~~ - ~~ - ~~ - ~~ - ~~ - ~~ - ~~ - ~~ - ~~
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Raj Thiagarajan <rajas@EMBL-Heidelberg.DE>

Yes I still use PVM

Molecular Dynamics is my application

Machines 	: SGI family mostly
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Tal Yonatan <jonathan@cfd4.eng.tau.ac.il>

hello Project Team,

I am pleased to take place in your survey.

1. Yes i am using PVM today (version 3.2).

2. My applications is numerical simulation of turbulent pipe flow and it's
 post processing.

3. I am using 10 DEC 3000 (ALPHA) work stations in the Dep. of fluid mechanics
 in tel aviv university.
 each of my slaves programs is using about 50 Mbytes of memory.

 please contact me for more information.

 Jonathan Tal
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Nicolas Droux <droux@info.isbiel.ch>

> Are you using PVM today?
YES

> What are your application(s)?
- PPC: Portable Parallel C (http://www.info.isbiel.ch/ppc/)
- Parallel library implemented on top of PPC
- ECS: External Computation System (an package allowing
Mathematical applications (Mathematica, ...) to export numerical
intensive calculations to parallel and distributed systems)

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
20 x SPARC 10, Solaris 2.4
3 x NEXTSTEP computers
(and soon about 10 Linux machines)

Best Regards,

Nicolas Droux
Engineering School of Biel-Bienne
Switzerland
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: lks@ll.mit.edu (Keith Sisterson)
Message-Id: <9501081004.AA16649@LL.MIT.EDU>
To: pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu
Subject: Re: PVM survey

PVM Team,

	We are not using PVM at the moment. We are considering it
	for a new project which will ultimately require a combination
	of workstations and perhaps special processor boxes totaling
	well over 10 GFLOPS peak. The system is for handling large
	volumes of images and extracting information from them.
	We will soon be studying whether
	or not PVM is an appropriate tool for this job, and one
	question which springs to mind is that of the overhead
	through the PVM calls. We do have the PVM manual, but I have
	done little but glance at it yet, so if the answer is there
	I shall no doubt find it.

	If there is an e-mail address to which we can send such
	questions, I would be grateful if you let me know it.

	Thanks,
		Keith Sisterson
		(lks@ll.mit.edu)
		(617) 981 3465
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: noe@olivia.quim.ucm.es (Noe Garcia Almarza)
>
> Are you using PVM today?

 Yes, I am, but I am still an unexperienced beginner
>
> What are your application(s)?

 Molecular Dynamics
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

 IBM 6000, dec 5000
>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

 Best wishes, and thanks for producing PVM

> The PVM Project Team

 Noe G. Almarza
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Rene' Kulschewski" <rene@prz.tu-berlin.de>
>
>Are you using PVM today?

Yes.
>
>What are your application(s)?

Numerical applications in chemical engineering.
>
>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
1 Sun running SunOS 4.1.3, 1 Sun running Solaris 2.3, 1 IBM RS 6K with AIX,
1 NeXTstation.
>
>Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

I would like to see the ability of synchronous communication,e.g. task A
get a notification that task B got the message from A (kind of 'blocking
send').

It would be nice if one could specify priorities for communication between
processes. I mean that i would like to say: message-passing between task A
and B is prioritized over communication between B and C.

I would find it useful if i could specify that the order between messages
send is guaranteed ( following scenario: Task A send's messages to B,C,C,B;
it would be nice if not B get his last message before C got his first ...).

Regards
Rene'
---
____________________________________________________________________________
<rene@prz.tu-berlin.de> Rene' Kulschewski
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: nprasad@eos.hitc.com (Narayan S. Prasad)
>>
>>Are you using PVM today?

Yes
>>
>>What are your application(s)?
Scientific
>>
>>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
All major workstations like HP, SUN, SGI, IBM. Currently using it on the
Cray T3D and IBM SP-2.
>>
>>
>*********************************************************
>Michael Bopf Phone:(301)925-0398
>Hughes Applied Information Systems Fax: (301)925-0326
>*********************************************************
>
>
>

***********************************************************************
 Narayan S. Prasad PH: (301) 925-0467
 Dept. SDPS FAX: (301) 925-0327
 EOSDIS Core System
 Hughes Applied Information Systems, Inc.
 1616 McCormick Drive
 Landover, MD 20785

***********************************************************************
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: axon@cortex.rutgers.edu (Ralph Siegel)

Are you using PVM today?
At the moment I am using PVM3.3.
What are your application(s)?
Large scale simulations of collections of neurons in the visual
cortex. Neural networks.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
A ethernet cluster of 5 Rs/6000 Model 540, 370, 370, 370, powerpc

Maui SP/2 50 to 100 nodes at once.

--
Sincerely,

Ralph Siegel, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
axon@cortex.rutgers.edu
phone: 201-648-1080 x3261
fax: 201-648-1272

Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience
Rutgers, The State University
197 University Avenue
Newark, NJ 07102

For additional information and reprints use Mosaic:

http://www.cmbn.rutgers.edu/cmbn/faculty/rsiegel.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: KARG <karg@uranus.tuwien.ac.at>
>
> Are you using PVM today?
> yes
> What are your application(s)?
> Parallel FFT, parallel solution of differential equations
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
> 4 HP-UX machines 2 models 700 and 2 models 800
Mfg.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

| /\ /\ +----------------------------------+
| / \ / \ |\/|ichael | Dipl.-Ing. Michael Karg |
| / \/ \ +----------------------------------+
| /\ |/ | 0222/58801/5420 od. 0222/5056190 |
| / \ |\arg | karg@uranus.tuwien.ac.at |
| /----\ | Graf Starhemberggasse 32/2/3 |
|/ \ +---+ 1040 Wien +----+
 | http:/uranus.tuwien.ac.at/~karg/karg.html |
 +-------------------------------------------+
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: F.A.Rabhi@computer-science.hull.ac.uk (Fethi A Rabhi)
>
>Are you using PVM today?
>
Yes.

>What are your application(s)?
>
PVM is used as a target language for high level parallel programming
environment.

We are also using PVM for some Monte Carlo simulation and molecular
dynamics in collaboration with the Applied Physics Department.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
Network of Sun Sparcs. 8-node i860 based Transtech Paramid.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr Fethi A. Rabhi Email : F.A.Rabhi@dcs.hull.ac.uk
Computer Science
University of Hull Tel : +44 (0)1482 465744
Hull HU6 7RX (UK) Fax : +44 (0)1482 466666
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Hiroki Konaka <konaka@trc.rwcp.or.jp>

> Are you using PVM today?

Yes, I'm using PVM 3.2.6.

> What are your application(s)?

I'm implementing a parallel object-oriented language, called OCore.
I use PVM as the communication infrastructure of the OCore runtime
system for NOW's.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Sun SPARC stations.

Thanks for your efforts to provide such a good environment.

- Hiroki Konaka
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: cxprc@rc.rit.edu (Chris Pane)
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Yes I am
>
> What are your application(s)?
>
I am using pvm to implement distributed rendering applications (Raytracing at the moment). This particular project is part of my Master Thesis.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
50 SUN SPARC II
25 SGI5 Machines
4 Pentium (Running Linux)
Looking into a Sparc station with Transputers on board (Not sure if this is possible, is it ?????).
2 SPARC 10 machines
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Toshiyuki Takahashi <tosiyuki@issoft5.is.noda.sut.ac.jp>

$@!d(JAre you using PVM today?

Yes.

$@!d(JWhat are your application(s)?

KLIC

$@!d(JHow many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Sun SS10 * 6
IBM RS6000/25T * 6

----
# Toshiyuki TAKAHASHI			# Takeda Lab.
# Dept. of Information Science		# Science Univ. of Tokyo
# E-mail:tosiyuki@is.noda.sut.ac.jp
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: rsweet@tiger.denver.colorado.edu (Roland Sweet)

I am currently not using PVM although I plan to use it within the next
nine months to create a distributed memory parallel version of the
software package Crayfishpak.

Roland Sweet
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: rory@chemical-eng.edinburgh.ac.uk

1) Yes, I am using PVM today.

2) I have and am using PVM for 2 things:

 (i) As one means of parallelising a Dynamic Chemical Process Simulator.
 I previously used Meiko CS-Tools, but wanted to expand out into the use of
 work station clusters.

 (ii) As the communication and program management layer for a distributed, object based
 engineering environment we are developing. PVM is used to manage the machines
 being used, spawn new object manipulation applications (methods) and to pass
 ascii encoded objects between them. It is a Client/Server based environment were
 applications are continually being dynamically spawed and killed. We also
 have applications joining sessions without ever being spawned within PVM.

3) So far we have used SUN4s, a LINUX box and IBM RS6000s.
 I have also tried to use a SEQUENT running DYNIX/ptx(R) V2.1.1 but could not get it
 to compile. The functions gettimeofday() and ffs() were not available or no
 BSD compatibility library appears to exist for this OS.

 On System V machines the function get_clock seems to be the alternative to
 gettimeofday(). Unfortunately there is no allowance in the PVM source for easily
 substituting gettimeofday as there is for other functions such as bcopy() for example.

Comments:
---------

Overall, I think PVM is an excellent package. My main complaints are as follows.

(i) Output management:
 I really hate the way output is managed. You either have to tail -f a /tmp file
 which usually hangs when too much output appears or you have to manage all of the
 output youself in an application you have specified wants it using the pvm_setopt
 function.

 The second of these is fine in principle. It would however be a nice touch to add an
 option which tells PVM to manage the incoming redirected output for the programmer.
 i.e. Whenever PVM gets a message which is an output redirect is simply dumps it to
 stdout/stderr rather than expecting the programmer to deal with it.

(ii) pvm_kill()

 One of our projects uses PVM to spawn and manage many applications. Part of this
 management process is to kill application which have hung or are nolonger wanted.
 It is not always possible to send a shutdown message, and quite often we have to use
 pvm_kill().

 The problem is that pvm_kill() only sends a SIGTERM, which some applications ignore.
 I would like to see pvm_kill() extended to allow SIGKILL as well as SIGTERM, which is
 guaranteed to kill the application. In fact, could pvm_kill() not be expanded to
 behave in the same manner as the unix kill(), thus allowing a multitude of signals to
 be sent to distributed applications.

 At the moment we have to log into the machine and kill the application via a shell
 which is inconvenient and outwith the applications control.

(iii) PVM to PVM connection.

 PVM only allows applications which belong to a single user to communicate. It would
 be a usefull extension to allow one users PVM to log in to and send messages to another
 users PVM.

 In our design application each user works under a client/server environment. However
 we want each user to be able to use other users object data bases and applications. To
 do this we need to connect the servers together. At present we are having to use
 sockets since PVM does not support inter PVM communication at present.

Hope all this helps

Rory.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Oren Laden <orenl@cs.huji.ac.il>
Hi,

PVM survey

>>Are you using PVM today?
Yes.

>>What are your application(s)?
We are using PVM as a reference execution environment to test our
dynamic load-balancing mechanisms. Specific issues include load
distribution and redistribution, high utilization of a NOW configuration,
and communication overhead.

We are also running parallel numerical applications.

>>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
A cluster of Pentiums, 486/66 and 486/33 PC's.

>>Any comments and suggestions for improvement ...
The current work and load distribution of PVM should be improved.
We executed PVM on top of MOSIX (our NOW OS) and observed an improvement
of 25-150% in the execution times of several parallel applications.
These results are expected to be even worse in a multiuser usage.

Bye,

 Oren.

****************************************
** Oren Laden (orenl@cs.huji.ac.il) **
** ---------------------------------- **
** Distributed Operating Systems lab. **
** The Hebrew University of Jerusalem **
** 	Jerusalem, Israel 91904 **
****************************************
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: christian.leder@stud.uni-rostock.de (Christian Leder)
>
> Are you using PVM today?
 no, not today but on a regular basis approx. 2 times per month

> What are your application(s)?
 numerical computations, simulations, work on my thesis

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 SUN cluster, RS6000 cluster, LINUX PC cluster

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Carlos Armando Magalhaes Duarte <armando@ticam.utexas.edu>
>
> Are you using PVM today?
>
	Yes!

> What are your application(s)?
>
	Parallel implementation of hp Finite element Methods.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
	It is been developed on a cluster of 16 RS6000 (many models).

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

	Keep up with the good work.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Paul Hayes" <hayes@wookie>
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Not at this moment, but I plan to.
>
> What are your application(s)?

Large memory matrices. Sets of large memory matrices.
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Sun, HP, alpha.
>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
>

More example programs would be nice. Perhaps the fellows who developed lparx
could get some good programs/utilities for you.
--
Paul Hayes
Special Purpose Processor Development Group Phone:(507) 284 3479
Mayo Foundation Fax:(507) 284 9171
Guggenheim 1012B Email:hayes.paul@mayo.edu
200 First Street SW
Rochester, MN 55905
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Julian Hall <julian@mathematics.edinburgh.ac.uk>

> Are you using PVM today?
>
Yes

> What are your application(s)?
>
Parallel revised simplex method for linear programming.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
Local network of SUN workstations and the Edinburgh Cray T3D.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: rainer@parchaos.mathematik.uni-freiburg.de (Rainer Kleinrensing)

Hello there,

> Are you using PVM today?

Yes, we use it on our 14 SGI Indigo Workstations and on a Sun Sparcstation
Pool.

> What are your application(s)?

We are doing CFD and have ported some code to a transputer machine (Parsytec
Xplorer, NOT using PVM). We want to be able to port it to a variety of
machines, so we consider changing it to use PVM. There is a commercial
implementation of PVM on the Parsytec machine, but we did not use this one
yet.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM

Only the SGIs and Suns mentioned, but we'll try it on the Parsytec machine
soon.

It's a nice piece of software, thanks a lot !

--

 Rainer Kleinrensing, rainer@mathematik.uni-freiburg.de
 Institute for Applied Mathematics Phone: +49-761-203-5639
 Hermann-Herder-Str. 10
 Freiburg University Fax: +49-761-203-5632
 79104 Freiburg / Brsg., Germany
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: louis@ford.ee.up.ac.za (Louis Coetzee)
To: pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu
Subject: Re: PVM survey

>>>>> On Fri, 6 Jan 1995 18:08:47 -0500, pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu said:

PVM> Are you using PVM today?
No, not today, although I use it very often.

PVM> What are your application(s)?
Parallel training of neural networks as well as a variety of parallel
optimization algorithms.

PVM> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
12 IBM RS6000 machines
or
1 4 processor SUN sparcserver 1000

PVM> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
I would really appreciate a shared memory port for the KSR1.

Cheers

Louis Coetzee
louis@ford.ee.up.ac.za
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Ralf Hetzel <het@physik.uni-wuerzburg.de>

Q11: I am not using PVM at the moment.
Q2: Quantum Monte Carlo simulations in theoretical solid state physics
Q3: About 12 HP workstations, 700 series, running HP-UX 8.07

Best regards,
Ralf Hetzel
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: tom (Thomas Heiling)
>
> Are you using PVM today?
Yes
>
> What are your application(s)?
A parallel chess program
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
My main machines are 386 or 486 PC with varying Speed and equipment.
Normally the program plays on
386/25 MHZ 4 MB RAM
386/40 MHZ 8 MB RAM
486/33 MHZ 16 MB RAM
486/66 MHZ 8 MB RAM
and eventually on some HP Workstations for testing purpose.
( HP9000/ 715 )
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: atwood@nas.nasa.gov (Christopher A. Atwood)
>
> Are you using PVM today?

y

>
> What are your application(s)?

computational fluids, nonlinear dynamics, controls

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

v3.2.3: 19 nodes, w/ machine composed of: sgi (mips r3000,
r4000,r4400), hp755 (pa-risc), ibm590 (rios)

pvme on ibm sp2 to 31 nodes
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Karl.F.Moschner@urlus.sprint.com

About a year ago we downloaded a copy of PVM and successfully tested it but
did not move ahead with implementing critical applications under PVM. It
was attractive but a few factors kept us from pursuing PVM:

- we are low on manpower

- commercial applications offered greater speedups on a single workstations
 than we would have attained by implementing comparable available codes
 under PVM

- we purchased a parallel server which supported all of our software
 without PVM and offered greater performance than all of our workstations
 combined

We have encouraged suppliers to offer PVM variants but have had no success.
One particular commercial vendor plans to offer coarse grained network
parallelism (automatically submit a series of jobs or readily discernable
subprocesses across a series of identified accounts/systems).

Karl F. Moschner Karl.F.Moschner@urlus.sprint.com
Unilever Research U. S.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: John Chitalia <chitalia@babbage.csee.usf.edu>

1) Are you using PVM today?

No, but I plan to use it when I implement my algorithm.

2) What are your application(s)?

Parallel graphics algorithms. Mainly geometric modelling.

3) How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

I've used a network of Sun workstations (up to 10 different ones) and an Intel
iPSC/2 with 4 and 16 nodes.

Since I haven't actually programmed with PVM yet, I can't offer any suggestions.
I've only tried out the test examples. Sorry about that.

JC
chitalia@pixel.csee.usf.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Mike Kupferschmid <kupfem@rpi.edu>

> Are you using PVM today?

Not this precise day, but I have a graduate student who is
using it from time to time these days.

> What are your application(s)?

He's trying to use parallel function evaluations to speed up
a nonlinear optimization algorithm.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

We've been running on a 16-node IBM SP1, whose nodes are
RS6000/360 workstations.

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

We have been hindered in our attempts to devise an effective
parallel algorithm by the fact that PVM does not provide a primitive
for asynchronously interrupting a worker process and causing it to
start over again as though it had been killed and respawned.
Instead we must either kill and respawn the process (which has a
very high overhead indeed) or poll within the worker (which is
inconvenient and also wastes time). There should be a way within
the worker to set a program interrupt exit: "whenever you get this
signal from the master program, stop whatever it is you are doing
and go back to statement n". And there should be a way within the
master to send the signal that says "abandon that calculation and
get ready for a new assignment".
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: zliu@tiger.denver.colorado.edu (Zhining Liu)

Are you using PVM today? Yes, but not very much

What are your application(s)? CFD and numerical combustion

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM? IBM-SP2

Zhining Liu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: MAVERICK <ATAE@spva.physics.imperial.ac.uk>

Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

What are your application(s)?

Scientific data (images and times series) analysis/processing.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

6 Decstations.

	adios
		Ata <(|)>.
| Mail Dr Ata Etemadi, Blackett Laboratory, |
| Space and Atmospheric Physics Group, |
| Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine, |
| Janet atae@uk.ac.ic.ph.spva Earn/Bitnet atae@spva.ph.ic.ac.uk |
| Internet/Arpanet atae%spva.ph.ic.ac.uk Span SPVA::atae |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Ed_Donley <HEDONLEY@grove.iup.edu>

 Response to PVM Survey

1. Are you using PVM today?
 I am using PVM to teach an undergraduate course on Numerical Methods for
 Supercomputers. The title is now a misnomer, since I am using PVM in
 addition to the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center's Cray YPM C90.

2. What are your application(s)?
 The students are using the Lennard-Jones model (a system of ordinary
 differential equations) for molecular dynamics modelling. This unit
 is based on Lloyd Fosdick's and Liz Jessup's High Performance Scientific
 Computing course materials at the University of Colorado.

3. How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 Six DECstation 5000s running Ultrix 4.4.

Ed Donley
Mathematics Department
Indiana University of PA
Indiana, PA 15705
U.S.A.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <S.N.Brodie@ecs.soton.ac.uk>
-->
--> Are you using PVM today?

Yes, but only just started.

-->
--> What are your application(s)?

Distributed process support

-->
--> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Currently 5 SUN4 (SunOS 4.1.3) machines

--
Stewart Brodie
Dept. Electronics & Computer Science, Southampton University, UK.
http://louis.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~snb94r/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <jay@tsasa.lanl.gov>

Are you using PVM today?
 Yes.

What are your application(s)?
 Large-scale parallel simulation of models in statistical mechanics.

How many and what kinds of machines have you used with PVM?
 Clarkson University RISC/6000 cluster: approx. 70 IBM RISC/6000 workstations.
 SUN Workstations at Los Alamos National Laboratory: approx. 20 SPARCstations.

Suggestions for improvement:
 It would be very, very nice to be able to transfer "unsigned" variables
 between processes (i.e. in C, unsigned long, unsigned int, etc...). In
 the version of PVM I have now, it is only possible to transfer signed
 long's and int's.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Himavan P <himavan@ce.odu.edu>

1. Yes, I am using PVM.

2. Application: Finite Element Analysis,
		Stiffness Matrix Generation & Assemblage.

3. How many machines/what kind:
		2 to 4 machines, Sparc Stations SUN.

x. Thank you,

Himavan Pamujula
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Sameer Suresh Shende <sameer@cs.uoregon.edu>
>
> Are you using PVM today?
No. I am a CS grad student and I was using it last term for course projects.
>
> What are your application(s)?
>
Expanding the PVM API. Writing system software. I am not an application
developer.
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
About 6 SUN4 workstations (SunOS) and a Sequent Symmetry machine (Dynix).

>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
I was working on a dynamic load balancing API for PVM. PVM currently
provides point to point communication constructs for communication (or
multicast). The sender iss aware of who is going to receive the message.
I developed an API based on heirarchical farms where the farmer task
makes a number of woprk packets and sends it to a central server. The
workers group themselves into process worker classes (multiple farms per
application, multiple worker classes per farm, multiple worker tasks (pvm
tasks) per worker class, worker can in turn be a farmer - heirarchical
farm, and dynamic worker task migration from one farm to another) and
receive work packets only when they request for one. This way, the
workers on slow nodes get fewer work packets and the application is load
balanced. If you want the report of my project, I will be glad to give it
to you.
My address is sameer@cs.uoregon.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Steve Moyer <moyer@mathcs.emory.edu>

>Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

>What are your application(s)?

I am using PVM as a communications and process management substrate for
parallel-distributed file system research (PIOUS).

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

1) Sun4/SunOS 4.1.3
2) Sun4/SunOS 5.3
3) SGI/IRIX 4.0.5
4) Dec Alpha/OSF1 2.1
5) HP 9000/HP-UX
6) IBM RS6000/AIX

>Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

Two suggestions:

1) I would like to see the bug fixed that prevents pvm_pkbyte()/pvm_upkbyte()
 pairs from being able to pack/unpack in different groupings; eg 6 calls
 to pvm_pkbyte() packing one byte each and 2 calls to pvm_upkbyte() unpacking
 3 bytes each. This works in the data raw mode but not in the data
 default mode. Since this can be done with all other types, it should
 be made to function properly with the byte type.

 I have reported this before, but was told that this is considered
 a feature and not a bug.

2) Message contexts for library development would be a BIG improvement.

Regards,

Steve

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steven A. Moyer Email: moyer@mathcs.emory.edu
Mathematics and Computer Science Office: (404) 727-0668
Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322 Fax: (404) 727-5611
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: kly@sunpaw.cern.ch (Gregory KOZLOVSKY)

>>Are you using PVM today?

No, I finished a program which uses PVM and this program will hopefully
be used by other people.

>>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

I used PVM on SP-1 and SP-2.

>>Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

I would like to see better debugging facilities. There should be a way of
getting the output from different host on your terminal (prefixed with
host id) and not into a file only as it is now.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: bbs@bbsipc.newcastle.edu.au (Bryan Beresford-Smith)

Are you using PVM today?
 I used it for some of the practical work last year in a course I taught
 on Parallel Processing.

What are your application(s)?
 So far, only as a tool for teaching and research.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 About 20 SUN workstations and also with a MasPar MP-1.

Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
 It has been very useful as a teaching tool. Thanks!

******************************************************************************
Dr Bryan Beresford-Smith
Senior Lecturer .-_|\ Dept of Computer Science
email: bbs@cs.newcastle.edu.au / \ The University of Newcastle
ph. + 61 49 216056 \.--._* <- Callaghan NSW 2308
fax + 61 49 216929 v Australia
******************************************************************************
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: nhan@tiny.me.su.oz.au (Nhan Phan-Thien)

> Are you using PVM today ...
 Yes, we are planning to expand our PVM farm

> What are the applications ...
 Our applications are in the areas of Stokes flow and elasticity
 using boundary element methods. Mainly the operator is deflated
 and an iterative technique is used to obtain the solution. The system
 matrix is not stored but calculated as needed. A sub-domain decomposition
 is used, mapping each sub-domain to each processor.
 Extension of the finive volume method to PVM is being planned.

> How many machines ...
 We're using
	3 DEC alpha 300
	1 DEC alpha 400
	3 DEC alpha 800
	2 Titan Ardent

Ref: N Phan-Thien & D.L. Tullock, ``Completed Double Layer BEM in Elasticity
 and Stokes Flow: Distributed Computing Through PVM'', Computational
 Mechanics, 14 (1994) 370--383.

Nhan Phan-Thien
Professor in Mechanical Engineering
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: lange@cis.ksu.edu (Gregory Lange)
>
> Are you using PVM today?
	YES!
>
> What are your application(s)?
>
	Running a monte carlo simulation involving turbulent flow fields.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
	5 Sparc10's an am now running on the NCSA power challenge.

--
Gregory Lange
lange@cis.ksu.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Paul Crivelli <crivelli@amyntas.WPI.EDU>

> Are you using PVM today?
Yes, I have been since around November.

> What are your application(s)?
I have parabolized a Fluid Mechanics program (originally written by someone
else).

I am comparing their in-house message passing protocol to PVM.
Sorry but I cant give you any more info than that. Confidentiality and all that
dont ya know.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
All DEC machines. Predominantly Alphas (2-4) but also a few of their older
machines (1-2).

The documentation helped me a great deal. Especially the Appendix covering all
the different commands, this was invaluable.
The quick reference card helped alot too.

Congratulations on a job well done. Im a Mechanical Engineer and I didnt have
a lot of problems with learning PVM.

Paul Crivelli
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jason Moore <moorej@chert.CS.ORST.EDU>

 > Are you using PVM today?

Yes.
 >
 > What are your application(s)?

Mainly research. Parallel I/O, getting parameters for models.
 >
 > How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Usually no more than 8 machines: HPPA, SUN4 and Meiko CS-2 using their
modified version of PVM as well as the daemon-based generic version

-------
 Jason Moore Internet: moorej@research.cs.orst.edu
 Department of Computer Science
 Oregon State University Bell-net: (503) 737-4052
 "Anything worth doing is worth doing with a smile"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: bneta@math.nps.navy.mil (Beny Neta)

Sirs

Yes I am using PVM currently on a network of sun workstations (up to 16 machines). Application: Orbit Prediction.

Beny Neta
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Prachya Chalermwat <prachya@seas.gwu.edu>
>
> Are you using PVM today?
YES.
>
> What are your application(s)?
NOT YET DECIDED BUT TEND TO BE IMAGE PROCESSING, MATRIX COMPUTATION.
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
2 Linux-based 486 machines
1 Sparc 1000 server
2 Sun servers
2 Sun workstations
1 Sun Sparc workstation
>
--
PC
=-------------------------------+-----------------------------------=
Prachya Chalermwat		|	"I've tried everything.
email: prachya@seas.gwu.edu	|	 I've not failed.
[O] (202) 994-5268		| 	 I've just found 10,000 ways
[Fax] (202) 994-5296		|	 that won't work."
				|	 Thomas A. Edison
=-------------------------------+-----------------------------------=
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: cstokley@cs.gmu.edu (Katja Stokley)

Are you using PVM today?
	Not specifically today (it's Sunday :-)), but yes, I'm using
	PVM now.

What are your application(s)?
	Simulating an interconnection network for a massively
	parallel computer in order to implement algorithms for
	the simulated machines.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
	Sparc workstations, up to about 20 of them.

Sincerely,
Katja Stokley
cstokley@cs.gmu.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jonathan Kua <kua@crhc.uiuc.edu>
>
> Are you using PVM today?
>
Yes.

> What are your application(s)?
We were trying to do execution time prediction on-the-fly so as to
be able to schedule a parallelizable program as efficiently as possible.
We concentrated on medium-grain parallelism.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
HP 715s
Sun Sparc 10s
IBM RS/6000
We have only used heterogeneous combinations of up till 20 machines
recently. We might try more later.

Jonathan Kua
kua@crhc.uiuc.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: tsune@taklab.takenaka.co.jp (TSUNEKAWA Hiroshi)

Dear Sir:

pvm-survey>Are you using PVM today?

Yes

pvm-survey>What are your application(s)?

I'm using PVM to parallelize EDEM: Extended Distinct Element Method that
is based on Cundall's DEM and that have beed developed by Prof. Hakuno.
It is a method to analyze both discrete and continuous material.

pvm-survey>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

I usually use two or three SGI machines.
Indigo2(IRIX5)
CRIMSON(IRIX5...recently changed...I haven't excuted PVM yet)
310VGX(IRIX4)

EDEM needs more traffic data than FEM. I'm trying to reduce the data
to accelerate the execution.

sincerely yours.
-----
TSUNEKAWA Hiroshi
Fundamental Research Department
TAKENAKA Research & Development Institute, Chiba, Japan

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: roberto@ee.uwa.edu.au (Roberto Togneri)
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Not exactly today, but we have been using it off and on and it will be used
for parallelising some algorithms we have on workstation clusters.
There is currently a vacation student learning PVM with the intent to use it
for something before the summer is out (see below).

>
> What are your application(s)?

We have used PVM as a vehcile for a load sharing program we developed and I
am still hoping we can incorporate it as part of PVM.
Currently we are looking at using it to parallelise the
Expectation-Maximisation (EM) algorithm used in our work. It is a prime
candidate due to its computational and memory requirements.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

So far just Suns (SPARC II, ELCs) running SunOS 4.1.3.
We have a two-processor SGI Onyx and if a native message-passing version of
PVM is available (I haven't checked the latest version yet) it may used to
explore/exploit the SGI.

>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

I have a project looking at the various ways and means of communicating
using the TCP protocols directly to examine the most effective
communication standard for parallel algorithms (e.g connectionless UDP .vs.
connectioned streams). One problem I found with PVM was that its internal
buffering meant that if I wanted to transer X Mb of data I would need to
have 2X Mb of memory. I haven't yet tested the latest version which allows
user control of buffer management. On the otherhand for most parallel
algorithms there are many small-data (< 1024 kb) communications and a way
to optimally handle this would be useful (this is what the above project is
going to try and figure out).

If you would like further clarification or have suggestions please do not
hesitate to contact me. I am definitely interested in the area of parallel
computation over networked computers.

Regards,
--
Dr. Roberto Togneri Phone: +61-9-380-2535 _--_|\
Centre for Intelligent Information Processing Systems / \
Dept. of Electrical & Electronic Engineering *_.--._/
The University of Western Australia Fax: +61-9-380-1101 v
NEDLANDS WA 6907 Australia Email: roberto@ee.uwa.edu.au
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: sato@mt.cssi.co.jp (Ryuuichi Sato)

Please receive my answers for your three questions.

1. Yes, I am using PVM now.

2. My application is Fluid Flow Analysis / FDM.

3. The machines I use are two or four SUN4s.

I hope these help you.
Best regards,

Ryuichi SATO, Canon Supercomputing S.I., Osaka JAPAN,
e-mail: sato@cssi.co.jp
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <ohtak@trl.ibm.co.jp>

Here's my answer,

>> Are you using PVM today?
>>

Yes.

>> What are your application(s)?
>>

CFD(Computational Fluid Dynamics).

>> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>>

approximately four to ten of networked IBM's RS6000.
I'm considering of using a workstation cluster of 16 nodes in the
future.

Regards.

 Takashi Ohta at ohtak@trl.ibm.co.jp
 --------------------------------------------
 Tokyo Research Laboratory
 / IBM Japan

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Hiroshi NAKASHIMA <nakasima@suiren.kuis.kyoto-u.ac.jp>

> Are you using PVM today?

Well, although I'm not sure whether I'll use PVM today, I
and my coleagues are using it almost daily.

> What are your application(s)?

Implementation of a concurrent logic programming language.
PVM is the inter-processor communication kernel of the
run-time system of the language processor.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Two. Fujitsu AP1000, a message-passing-base distributed-memory
multicomputer, and SunSparc workstations connected by LAN.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Hiroshi Nakashima (nakasima@kuis.kyoto-u.ac.jp)
Dept. of Information Science, Faculty of Engineering, Kyoto Univ.
Yoshida Hon-Machi, Sakyo-Ku, Kyoto, 606-01 Japan. +75-753-5383
 information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

I might ask you to add a configuration for EWS4800s in the next
distribution. I will send you one when I confirm that the test suite
runs well.

Best regards,

Koichi Konishi
Computer System Lab., C&C Labs.
NEC Corporation
Phone: +81-44-856-8488, FAX: +81-44-856-2231
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: zhang hao <zhangh@apple.ncic.ac.cn>

> Are you using PVM today?
 Yes, we use it.
> What are your application(s)?
 We use it to do some research about WS. Cluster. And to present a platform
 such that the user of our MPP machine can run their Applications on it. They do have a lot of Apps. :-)
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 I haven't use a lot of nodes to run PVM. But I did have run it on a lot kind
 of platforms, includes: SUN4, RS6K, MIPS, E88K, Motorola S-900 and Mach 2.6 running on PC 386.

Hope that helps to improve PVM

--Zhang Hao
 NCIC, China.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: hideaki@hydra.cray.com (Hideaki Moriyama)
>
> Are you using PVM today?
>
	NOT today. Once a month, maybe.

> What are your application(s)?
>
	I don't have real applications. Just play with it.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
	Cray (Vector, MPP and CS6400)
	DEC 10000
	IBM 590
	Sun (Solaris 1 and 2)
	HP
	SGI

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
>
	compatibility between versions

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: pplab@myrinae.hallym.ac.kr (Project PVM)

Hi,
Thanks for your efforts.

1.Yes, I am using PVM today.
2.Parallel numerical processing & Program analysis
3. 8 (SUN3, SUN4)

Have a nice day (-|

 jkjang@sun.hallym.ac.kr
 pplab@maple.hallym.ac.kr
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Suresh Hungenahally <S.Hungenahally@me.gu.edu.au>

Hi I am using PVM extensively for teaching and research. I use it to teach
in the Advanced Computer Systems Course at the Honours level in my School
and ususlly I get 22 to 24 post graduate students in this subject. I also
use it for applied projects in Signal processing and other algorithmic
work.

In fact I am finding it very hard to process the data i am getting just due
to mere volume. I would appreciate if any one can collaborate with me to
get the reports converted into journal papers. I am willing to offer
the source code and the co-authorship. At present I have 14 technical
reports sitting on my desk all of them are work using PVM on 8 machines.

reg. suresh
_______________________________________________________________________________
Suresh Hungenahally
suresh@tomahawk.sct.gu.edu.au
Signal Processing and Intelligent Systems Research Group,
School of Microelectronic Engineering,
Faculty of Science and Technology,
Griffith University, Nathan Qld 4111 Australia
Ph +61 7 875 5063 Fax +61 7 875 5198
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: David Sitsky <sits@cafe.anu.edu.au>

> Are you using PVM today?

Yes - although most of my programs are now being written in MPI.

>
> What are your application(s)?

General Relativistic ray tracer.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Development under a SUN farm, runs on the Fujitsu AP1000 machine at the
ANU and CM5 machines at the ANU, university of New South Wales and
University of Adelaide. A run was done combining the three CM5s and the
AP1000.

David Sitsky Email: sits@cs.anu.edu.au
CAP Research Program Phone: +61 6 249 5143
Australian National University Fax: +61 6 249 0010
Canberra ACT 0200, Australia

WWW: ftp://dcssoft.anu.edu.au/pub/www/dcs/people/sitd/sits.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Craig Huckabee <huck@nise-ch.nosc.mil>
>
> Are you using PVM today?

 No, not as of yet. I have not used it since school (See Question #3)
but I'd hope to find a use for it at my new job.

> What are your application(s)?
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

 I used PVM as a senior at Clemson University for a class project.
We were assigned the task of using PVM to do a distributed merge-sort between
5 or more machines (simple task, but it was used to demonstrate process
control and communication for the class which was about Operating Systems)
I had been a cooperative education student with Naval Electronic Systems
Engineering Center, (NAVELEX), Charleston - a DOD/Navy command, and had
access to several Sun machines that were distributed across the US. I used
PVM to do my merge sort between 5 machines, each being in a different city
in the US. Each machine was an identical Sun SPARC 10/41 and the links were
T1 and ethernet. I got a 'A' for the effort and I found PVM to be easy to
use and well documented. I guess I should kinda say Thanks!

>

Regards,

 Craig Huckabee
 NAVELEX Charleston, SC
 huck@nosc.mil
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: chik@icot.or.jp (Takashi Chikayama)

Hideaki Moriyama (hideaki@hydra.cray.com) forwarded me your message
calling for feedback on PVM. Here's mine.

Are you using PVM today?

	Yes.

What are your application(s)?

	In an implementation of a parallel logic programming language
	called KLIC (available by anonymous ftp from ftp.icot.or.jp).
	There are several other (more efficient) implementations
	dependent on platforms, but the PVM version is meant to be
	portable.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

	- SparcCenter 2000 (20 processors)
	- DEC AXP-7000 (6 processors)
	- SparcStation 10/52 systems, connected with ethernet (8
	 systems with 16 processors in total)

Comments:

	To build a symbolic processing system for dynamic and
	irregular computation, it is desirable to asynchronously
	interrupt other processes to stop or suspend speculative
	computation and start computation newly known to be mandatory.
	We use sendsig for the purpose, but sendsig sometimes
	outstrips ordinary messages, which is a problem because the
	receiver may receive no messages after receiving the signal.
	Our implemetation currently use timer-driven polling in
	combination to make it up, but it is an awkward solution. It
	would be much better if PVM could provide some feature that
	guarantees that the signal arrives *after* specified messages
	(though I'm not sure whether it can be implemented in a
	portable manner or not).

Takashi Chikayama
Institute for New Generation Computer Technology (aka ICOT)
Tokyo, Japan
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Wang Dao-liu" <wdl@indigo2.cc.ac.cn>

I am learning to use PVM now and plan to apply it to Molecular Dynamics.
Now we have installed PVM on 8 SGI indigo R4000 connected in a local network
and some i486s, which are used for simulation in single machine.

We have found PVM is quite good environment for network computation.
Many thanks for your supporting PVM.

Best regards,

Daoliu Wang

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Shinji Hioki <hioki@fusion.sci.hiroshima-u.ac.jp>
>>
>> Are you using PVM today?
>>
Yes, but only test for production.

>> What are your application(s)?
>>
Elementary Particle Physics
Lattice Quantum Chromo Dynamics Monte Carlo Simulation

>> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>>
4 DEC ALPHA

S.Hioki
Dept. of Physics, Hiroshima Univ., Higashi-Hiroshima 724, JAPAN
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: sjchen@pine.iecs.fcu.edu.tw (Shih-Jeh Chen)

Dear pvm_survey:

	Thank you for giving the important message.

	I am using PVM today!

	My applications are parallel processing research,
		and MPI standard implementation.

	I use four or eight SUN-workstations(SPARC classic)
		for PVM applications.

	I need the informations about PVM and MPI,
	if you have the lastest message, please mail to me.

	Thank you very much!

	email: sjchen@pine.iecs.fcu.edu.tw

	Name : Shih-Jey Chen

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From : Feng-Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan.
>
>Are you using PVM today?

No, not today. I used it a year ago and I will probably use PVM again
in a few months.

>What are your application(s)?

Experimental meso-scale wind model.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

1 x HP735/99
1 x HP715/50
1 x HP705
1 x SPARC 2
1 x SPARC ELC
2 x SPARC 1
1 x SPARC SLC

Regards, Peter McGavin.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: lally@lanl.gov (Bryan Lally)
>
>Are you using PVM today?

No. I hope to be soon. My codes are almost ready for this step.

>What are your application(s)?

CFD, always coupled with some other transport phenomena (heat transfer,
electromagnetics, particulate flow, etc.) and often with chemcial reactions
layered on top of the fluid mechanics).

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

None, but hope to use a heterogeneous cluster of SGI and DEC AXP workstations.

 - Bryan

--------------
Bryan Lally
lally@lanl.gov

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Tony von Sadovszky <tony@physics.unr.edu>

Are you using PVM today?

 Yes Iam using PVM today....

What are your application(s)?

 My applications include the following:
 - particle in cell plasma modeling
 - genetic algorithms applied to ground water modeling,
 eclipsing binary star modeling, and
 electron scattering resonance calculations

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

 The machines upon which I utilize PVM include:
 - 23 DECstation 3100's
 - 4 HP 9000/725's
 - IBM SP2 @ Muai
 - CRAY T3D @ Anchorage
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tony von Sadovszky Email: tony@rigel.physics.unr.edu
University of Nevada, Reno Office (LP 314): (702) 784 - 6059
Department of Physics/220 Department: (702) 784 - 6792
Reno, Nevada 89557-0058 Fax: (702) 784 - 1398
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: muramatu@cx_nkkc34.info-sys.tokyo.nkk.co.jp (muramatu)

Dear the person in charge,
This is Muramatsu at NKK Co., Japan. In reply to the message from you.

>Are you using PVM today?
 No. I used to use PVM.
>What are your application(s)?
 An ab initio Molecular Orbital Method programme.
>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 On CONVEX C34, HP9000 4cpu cluster.

Sorry that I cannot do much help. I moved to TCGMSG because
the programme I'm using was revised to fit TCGMSG. I think
PVM is much more polular than TCGMSG, and is the de fact standard.
Besides this, in the field of chemistry, TCGMSG has something.

Regards,
--------------------------------------------------------
 Yukihisa Muramatsu:<muramatu@info-sys.tokyo.nkk.co.jp>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: nomura@exp.cl.nec.co.jp

>Are you using PVM today?

 Yes, I am.

>What are your application(s)?

 Kinds of basic utilities for computer simulations.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

 I using NEC EWS4800 workstation claster: usually 6 to 10.

>Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
>Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

 I wish to use "numerial recipes for C++ using PVM"!!

**********************************************************
 Masahide Nomura (nomura@exp.cl.nec.co.jp)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: mansha@research.trddc.ernet.in (Rajesh K. Mansharamani)

Are you using PVM today? Yes

What are your application(s)? CFD, Sintering (Engineering simulations)

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM? SUN Sparc II,
SUN3, RS6K, I386, I486 (ATT SYS V and LINUX), HP9000/720, HP9000/435

Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

PVM is extremely portable and reasonably efficient. We wish the packing
calls could be automated. For example, have a parser that parses a function
call such as pvm_send(tid, tag, arg1, arg2, ...) where arg1, arg2 can be of
different types (e.g, complex structures) and by determining the types of
the arguments it generates pack calls. This could be a preprocessor to C
compilation. Also if something can be provided under PVM for the advanced
system programmer who might want to use various socket options (such as
select etc.) it will be useful.

Rajesh K. Mansharamani
TRDDC Email: mansha@trddc.ernet.in
1 Mangaldas Road Phone: (212) 622 809
Pune 411 001 Fax: (212) 623 713
India
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: pefv774@hpcf.cc.utexas.edu (Taskin Ucpinar)

Here are the answers to your questions.

>
> Are you using PVM today?
>
 Yes, very extensivelly.
>
> What are your application(s)?
>
 My program is the extension to the utchem code of the program that is
 developped by the University of Texas @ Austin.
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
 The program has been run under a heterogeneous network of work stations of
 a total of 12 machines. The network consists of DEC-ALPHA, IBM-RS6000 and
 IBM-PowerPC computers.

 On the other hand, a modified version of the same program runs under
 Cray-T3D.
>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
>
 I wish it was a little bit faster on a heterogenous network. For comparison
 a version of utchem runs under c-linda system. And that version is faster
 than the pvm version.

 I know that the information that I gave is not detailed. If you need more
 information please do not hesitate to contact.

 Taskin Ucpinar

 University of Texas @ Austin
 Petroleum and Geosystem Eng. Dept.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: tchen@elbert.Mines.Colorado.EDU (Tong Chen)

Are you using PVM today?
Yes.

What are your application(s)?
Imaging the earth's subsurface structure for oil and gas exploration.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
I've used about 20 IBM RS6000 and 10 NeXT workstations, mainly for experiment.
Normally, I only use less than 10 IBM RS6000.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: naiman@super.org (Aaron E. Naiman)

Hi. Although I am not currently using PVM, I hope to use it in the
future. In the past I have set it up, and used it (slightly) for a
CM-5.

Thank you.

--
Aaron Naiman | IDA/SRC | University of Maryland, Dept. of Mathematics
 | naiman@super.org | naiman@math.umd.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: scott stanley <sstanley@panther.ucsd.edu>
>
> Are you using PVM today?

I am not currently using PVM very much. However, I will be using it in
the future. I am working with a vector code and will be using PVM later
to help develop a parallel version of the code.

>
> What are your application(s)?

My applications are in the area of computational fluid dynamics
(both direct numerical simulation and large eddy simulation of turbulent
flows.)

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

12 HP 9000 series workstations

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Eddie Johnson <johnsone@turing.uncg.edu>

Hello,

	I am not currently using PVM today, but I did use it in a class
on parallel computing. We used PVM on 15 Sun Stations to implement a
matrix multiplication routine and a prime number generator. The
PVM platform ran very well, and I was quite impressed. One thing I noticed
was that entering a large number of machines from the PVM command
prompt to form a conference was sometimes cumbersome, and I wish there
was a faster method of handling this. I wrote my own code to add machines
to the conference, but it would be nice if this code was already in
place, possibly in the form of reading a text file of host names and
adding them to the conference? Just an idea...

	I would like to congratulate you on the design of such as
amazing platform. Keep up the good work!

Eddie Johnson
--
 __^__ __^__
( _____ )-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-( _____ )
 | | | |
 | | | |
 | | Eddie Johnson | |
 | | Undergraduate, Computer Science | |
 | | The University of North Carolina at Greensboro | |
 | | E-mail : johnsone@hamlet.uncg.edu | |
 | | | |
 | ___ | | ___ |
( _____ )-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-( _____ )
 V V
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <brakke@geom.umn.edu>

> Are you using PVM today?
 Yes.

> What are your application(s)?
 I have a program, Surface Evolver, that is an interactive program
 for modelling liquid surfaces. I have experimented with making a
 parallel version with PVM, and I plan more extensive experiments
 this spring. Also, next year I will be teaching a course on
 parallel programming, and I am thinking of using PVM there.
 Do you know of any course materials based on PVM?

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 SGI, Sun, NeXT, both solo and network of 10-15 mixed types.
 Also a little on a CM5. And solo on an Intel machine.

Ken Brakke
brakke@geom.umn.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: loebel@ZIB-Berlin.DE (Andreas Loebel)

Dear PVM Project Team,

thank you for your interest in my current work,

>Are you using PVM today?
>
yes I do, at this time I have installed pvm 3.3.5

>What are your application(s)?
>
We delevop a distributed branch&cut program for vehicle scheduling in
urban public mass transit. The distribution on serveral workstations
is possible and necessary because we are interested in solving a kind
of multi-commodity-flow problem with up to 30 million variables. The
communication with pvm is not very extensive.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
At this time we use a cluster of SUN workstations (sparc20, sparc10,
sparc5). The operation system is solaris 2.3.

>Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
>Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
>
For us pvm is ok. The only problem we sometimes have is adding pvm
daemons from the pvm console.

Best wishes,

--
Andreas Loebel
Konrad-Zuse-Zentrum fuer Informationstechnik Berlin (ZIB)
Heilbronner Str. 10, D-10711 Berlin (Wilmersdorf)
PHONE: +49 30 / 89604-239
EMAIL: loebel@zib-berlin.de
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: hilka@em2c.ecp.fr (Martin Hilka)

1/	Yes, We are still using PVM

2/	Our Applications are principally Direct Numerical
	Simulation of Reactive Flow (turbulent premixed and diffusion
	flames). - CFD in a wider sense.

3/	Machines used are Sun (Sparc10), SGI and RS6000
	clusters, T3D, CS2, CM-5, Paragon, SP-1/SP-2
	and VPP-500. For production runs we target Workstation
	clusters, T3D and VPP-500, perhaps SP-2.

Thanks to you all.

Martin Hilka

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Thomas Frank <Thomas.Frank@imech.TU-Chemnitz.DE>

> Are you using PVM today?

Yes !

> What are your application(s)?

CFD - Computational Fluid Dynamics, Multiphase Flows

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

3 machines HP 735/755 , MIMD parallel Computer Parsytec GC with up to 128
Motorola Power PC Chips

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

It would be fine to have in PVM the same mechanism for message induced
processes like in EXPRESS. In EXPRESS it is possible to define a special
category of messages. If such a message is send to a curtain processor, a
user-defined process is initiated. In that user-defined procedure it is
possible to send further messages (normal and special type messages). So you
can submitt results of that procedure call to the initiating processor. That
kind of special messages gives you a convenient tool for programming of
- for instance - memory managers for large amounts of distributed data.

Sincerely yours,

							Thomas Frank

*******************************************************************************
* Dr. Thomas Frank | *
* Technical University Chemnitz-Zwickau | Adress of the Institute : *
* Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and | *
* Process Technology | *
* Department of Multiphase Flow | Reichenhainer Strasze 88 *
* PSF 964 , 09009 Chemnitz | 09126 Chemnitz *
* Germany | Germany *
*-----------------------------------------------------------------------------*
* Tel.: +49 (371) 531 46 43 *
* Fax.: +49 (371) 531 46 44 email : Frank@IMech.TU-Chemnitz.DE *
* URL : http://www.tu-chemnitz.de/~fth/mpf/mpf_home.html *
*******************************************************************************

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: jleik@statoil.no (Joergen Leiknes)
>
>Are you using PVM today?
Yes

>
>What are your application(s)?
ECLIPSE, a reservoir simulation program.
>
>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
Approx. 10 machines, IBM-rs6000, HP-hppa, SGI and sun4.
>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Dr. Manfred Kunicke" <kunicke@fz-rossendorf.de>

>Are you using PVM today?
 Yes we do, mostly in a test mode to get some experience in programming
 and controlling (XPVM).

>What are your application(s)?
 currently there are no "production applications"

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 HP9000(2*735, 1*715)

regards
 m.kunicke

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: sbokhari@shb.lhe.imran.pk (Shahid H. Bokhari)

> Are you using PVM today?
 Yes
> What are your application(s)?
 Parallel computing research and teaching. We have just started and
 expect to have some specific applications on soon. At that point we
 will be in a position to offer specific suggestions for improvement.
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 4 IBM PC Compatible 486/66 +2 386/33, running Linux.

 Thanks for PVM!
 Shahid Bokhari
 Department of Electrical Engineering
 University of Engineering & Technology
 Lahore 54890
 Pakistan
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Gerhard Wilhelms <Wilhelms@Uni-Augsburg.DE>

> Are you using PVM today?
Yes.

>
> What are your application(s)?
PVM is used as educational tool for lectures in parallel programming.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
~30 IBM RS/6000

[lines deleted]

Best regards,

 Gerhard Wilhelms
_____________________________________________________________________
 University of Augsburg (Germany)
 Department of Mathematics - Computer Science
 Universitaetsstrasse 2 Phone : +49 +821/598-2176
 D-86159 Augsburg Fax : 598-2200
 Internet: Wilhelms@Informatik.Uni-Augsburg.DE
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: alm01@sican.de (Praktikant AR(W.van Almsick))
>
> Are you using PVM today?
>

Yes, I do.

> What are your application(s)?
>

I'm on myself just making benchmarks on diferent (virtual) parallel
architectures. We have written a "benchmark generator" so everyone can
make his own benchmarks on his own parallel architecture with his own
application specific workload. So everyone who wants to use a (virtual)
parallel machine can test the computing and the communication behaviour before
he buys the machine.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
I'm using up to eight HPPA workstations, a CONVEX parallel computer
and in future a CRAY.

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
>

We like to run our project on an NCUBE because it grows up on an it
under PICL. But there is no version of PVM for the NCUBE.
So, we would like to have an version for the NCUBE.

I hope this helps you,

Karsten Zander

*************************************************************
* * *
* Karsten Zander * E-Mail: alm01@sican.de *
* * zander@irb.uni-hannover.de *
* * *
* * Germany, University of Hannover *
* * *
*************************************************************
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: jan@nats2.informatik.uni-hamburg.de (Jan Amtrup)

> Are you using PVM today?
Yes.

> What are your application(s)?
PVM we implemented a communications
facility modeled after the channels of Occam and the transputer. We
designed interfaces for C, C++, Common Lisp, Prolog and Tcl/Tk. The
communication system is actually used within the German joint research
project Verbmobil for message passing between different
modules. Additionaly, it is used to explore novel architectonic issues
for natural language understanding systems, which are inverstigated as
a subproject of Verbmobil.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
I personally use Sun Sparstations 2 and 10 under SunOs 4.1.x and Solaris 2.3
Other partners in our project use HP Workstations under HPUX or IBM RS6000
(and maybe some others which I don't know of).

Regards,
Jan.
_______________________________________________________________________
Jan Willers Amtrup Phone: (+49 40) 54 715-519
Universitaet Hamburg Fax: (+49 40) 54 715-515
FB Informatik (AB NatS) e-mail: amtrup@informatik.uni-hamburg.de
Vogt-Koelln-Str. 30 jan@nats2.informatik.uni-hamburg.de
D-22527 Hamburg
GERMANY
_______________________________________________________________________
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Winfrid Tschiedel <Winfrid.Tschiedel@mch.sni.de>
>
> Are you using PVM today?

 Yes
>
> What are your application(s)?

 So we are selling computers, our main interest is, that PVM is
 available on these platforms.
 We are just using PVM in benchmarks
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

 Fujitsu M780/10 running UXP/M V12L10
 several SGI Workstations running IRIX 5.2
 SGI Powerchallenge (4 x R8000 ) IRIX 6.0
 KSR-1 ( 16 processor ) KSR OS 1.2.2
--
_______________________________________________________________________________

Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG
SH WI Email: winfrid.tschiedel@mch.sni.de
Otto-Hahn-Ring 6 Tel. : ++49-89-636-45652
81739 Muenchen Fax : ++49-89-636-45046
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Renate Wahl <zrw@rz.uni-jena.de>
>
> Are you using PVM today? I have installed it and I use it for tests
			 and for courses of lectures. And I will be
			 happy if I have waken the interest in it.

>
> What are your application(s)? I know that a student experiment with PVM
				 on many ULTRIX - machines and in the medici-
				 nal computer center PVM is installed also,
				 but I don't know, what they do. They have
				 AIX - machines, I think.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM? In our central
				computer center I have installed PVM at
				1 ALPHA AXP 500
				2 DEC Station 5100
 1 IBM RISC 560, 340, 320 and 5 X 220

Best wishes,
Renate Wahl

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
I E - MAIL : zrw@hpux.rz.uni-jena.de I Renate Wahl I
I Phone : ( +49 03641) 636290 I Rechenzentrum der FSU Jena I
I FAX : ( +49 03641) 636354 I Am Johannisfriedhof 2 I
I I 07743 Jena I
I I Germany I
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: mseritan@edil.dcae.pub.ro (Marius Seritan)

> Are you using PVM today?
Yes, I am using PVM. I have installed the library for more than one year
but I have started to use it only 2-3 month ago.

> What are your application(s)?

I am working in the field of semiconductor devices modelling. I am
using PVM in order to implement a distributed simulator. I am
interested by distributed numerical computation algorithms.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

PVM is installed on 6 IBM RS6000 machines running AIX 3.2.{1,3,5}.

Yours sincerely,

Marius Seritan

Marius Seritan http://edil.dcae.pub.ro:8001/~mseritan
Department of Electronics and Telecomunications
Polytechnica University of Bucharest
Romania
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <rosa@iiasa.ac.at>

Yes, I'm using PVM at the moment.
I'm using PVM in the development of a parallel regularized decomposition
algorithm for the solution of large scale nonlinear stochastic programming
problems. Subproblems are solved by GAMS, called as a child process
from within the PVM processes.
I'm using PVM on a network of SUN workstations running SUNOS and SOLARIS.

Regards, Charles H. Rosa (rosa@iiasa.ac.at)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <hulaas@lcodec1.epfl.ch>

> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

> What are your application(s)?

Implementation of parallelizing/distributing compilers.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

1. Network of 30 DEC-Alpha
2. Network of 60 Sun-Sparc
3. Cray-T3D with 256 processors

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

1. I would like to have for instance better support for a logical
 task numbering scheme, instead of having to assign the numbers
 myself at program initialization from the array of TIDs given
 to pvm_spawn. Program initialization in general is a bit
 heavy to my taste.

2. Why not include some kind of support for RPC ? It seems to me
 that this also is a mechanism many users have to implement
 manually in PVM.

Best regards

J.Hulaas, hulaas@di.epfl.ch
Compiler Lab,
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Bernd Kugelmann <kugelm@mathematik.tu-muenchen.de>
>
> Are you using PVM today?
	Yes
>
> What are your application(s)?
	Numerical analysis --- boundary value problems ---
	numerical solution of ode
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
	20 --- SUN SPARCs --- SGIs (connected by ETHERNET)
--
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Dr. Bernd Kugelmann Phone: Germany + 89/2105-8128 |
| Fax: Germany + 89/2105-8156 |
| E-mail: kugelm@mathematik.tu-muenchen.de |
| Mathematisches Institut 					 |
| Technische Universitaet						 |
| D-80290 Muenchen 					 |
| Germany								 |
| |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: thoeny@ito.umnw.ethz.ch (Juerg Thoeny ETHZ)

Dear makers of PVM,
first of all, I would like to thank you for publishing PVM.

>Are you using PVM today?
Yes.

>What are your application(s)?
I'm using PVM to run simulations in parallel on our network. The
simulations are time-continous, time-discrete and event-driven.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
I'm using four SUN Workstations (with a total of five processors).

>Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
>Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
I was up and running in a short time. The only problem was my own mistake.
I put the PVM_ROOT environment variable into the interactive section of my
.cshrc file. I discussed this in the news-groups. It seems, that I'm not
the only person, which did this wrong. It could be helpfull to put a
warning into the manual.

Kind regards

Juerg

 '''
 (o o)
+---oOO--( )--OOo------------------------------------------------+--------+
!Juerg Thoeny, Systems Ecology, Institute of Terrestrial Ecology,! 2b !
!Grabenstrasse 3, CH-8952 Schlieren/Zuerich, Switzerland ! or !
!tel +41 1 633-6092, e-mail thoeny@ito.umnw.ethz.ch ! not 2b !
+--oOO---------OOo-----------------------------------------------+--------+

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Gerd Meister <meister@isa.informatik.th-darmstadt.de>

Hi,

> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.
>
> What are your application(s)?
>
I am working on Parallel Discrete Event Simulation and have
implemented a parallel logic simulator based on VHDL.

I am especially interested in the possibilities for speeding
up sequential simulations using "parallel" machines.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>

I am using 4 to 30 SUN4's running either Solaris 2.3 or BSD 4.1.3,
an Intel iPSC/860 Hypercube and 2 SUNMPs (Sparc Station 20 with
2 processors each).

Bye,
	Gerd.

--
Gerd Meister Tel.: 06151/16-5411
TH Darmstadt
FB Informatik Fax : 06151/16-4070
FG Verteilte Systeme, Prof. Mattern
D-64293 Darmstadt Email : meister@isa.informatik.th-darmstadt.de
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: ae906am@s600.rz.rwth-aachen.de (Herr_an_Mey)

Dear PVM Project Team,

thanks for your question.
We installed PVM 3.2 on a Fujitsu VP2600 at our site and tried
an simplified implementation ov PVM 2 on the Fujitsu VPP 500
vector parallel computer.
But as we received a PARMACS implementation for our computers, which
delivers more performance on the VPP500, we do not
use PVM for production purposes at the moment.
Because we have such a large mono processor, the users do not need
to parallelize their applications.
In future this situation might change.
Probably our interest might turn to MPI than.
I will forward your question to my collegue Stefan Karsch, who
is more involved in pVM for academical reasons.

Best wishes
Dieter an Mey
(user support for vector and vector parallel applications)

--------------------------------------------------------------------
\_\_\_\_ \_ \_\_\_\_\_ \_ Dieter an Mey
\_ \_\_ \__ \_ \_ \_ \_ RWTH Aachen Rechenzentrum
\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_ \_ \_\_\_ Seffenter Weg 23 D-52074 Aachen
\_ \_ \__ \__ \_ \_ \_ phone: +49(0)241-804377 fax: -8888134
\_ \_ \_ \_ \_ \_ \_ e-mail: anmey@rz.rwth-aachen.de
--------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: vernard@cc.gatech.edu (Vernard C. Martin)

> Are you using PVM today?

yes

> What are your application(s)?

Monitoring of distributed applications

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

I use PVM on several different architectures. Sun, SGI, KSR, IBM and Cray.
I tend to use about 8 machines for the workstations and 1 64 node KSR and a
4 processor CRAY.

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

Not at the moment.

--
<A HREF="http://www.cc.gatech.edu/grads/m/Vernard.Martin/">Vernard Martin</A>
Vernard Martin (vernard@cc.gatech.edu) Georgia Tech College of Computing
"To absent friends, lost loves, old gods, and the season of mists;
 and may each and every one of us always give the devil his due."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: john.doyle@cen.jrc.it (John Piero Doyle)

1) No, I am not using PVM today.

2) I am working on a Monte Carlo fortran code to simulate the
 radiative transfer of photons in an ocean-atmosphere system.

3) I am presently working on the code and have not yet implemented
 the parallelization of the computation of the photon histories
 on multiple processors, but have the firm intention of doing so in the
 future. To do this I was thinking of using PVM.

4) Can you give me an anonymous ftp adress (or something similar)
 where I can find the latest version of PVM?

Many thanks,
John

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Piero Doyle
T.P. 272
Unit Marine Environment (ME)
Institute for Remote Sensing Applications (IRSA)
Joint Research Centre (JRC)
European Commission (EC)
I-21020 ISPRA (VA)
ITALY

Direct tel: ++39 (0)332 789876
Fax: ++39 (0)332 789034
E-mail (INTERNET): john.doyle@cen.jrc.it

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: <buurj@ksepl.nl>

Dear Colleague,

Present application of PVM is numerical solution of certain partial
differential equations on cluster of workstations.

Architectures used in tests: CNVX, HPPA, PMAX, RS6K, SUN4.

Number of nodes in network: usually 1, but sometimes up to 10 or more.

Regards,
	J.N. Buur.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jacques.de.Swart@cwi.nl

Dear Colleague,

I am not using PVM already.

But I want to use it for numerically solving ODEs in parallel.

The machines on which I want to run PVM are clusters of workstations
and Parsytec.

Best wishes,

Jacques de Swart
Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science
Amsterdam
The Netherlands
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Garf Bowen <grb@sun-sparc1.intera.co.uk>
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

>
> What are your application(s)?

A number of applications in and around a commercial oil-reservoir
simulator.

 1. Parallel version of the code.
 2. co-operation between a number of simulator models.
 3. Communication with 'controlling' graphics programs.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>

 Of the order of 20.

 Workstations including Sun/SGI/RS6000/HP/Dec.

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
>

 I like the system.

 I've had some problems with non-blocking receives, but haven't checked
them out with the latest versions.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Andreas Listl <listl@informatik.tu-muenchen.de>

	> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

	>
	> What are your application(s)?

Parallel Database System.

	>
	> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

2-10 SUN SPARC and SUN 10

	>

Comments:
We would like to have support for shared memory in PVM. In our
application we use UNIX shared memory. We would also like to have
support for threads as some kind of PVM-task.

Best wishes,
Andy.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Angela Gelli <gelli@hpth1.difi.unipi.it>
>
> Are you using PVM today?

No.

>
> What are your application(s)?
>

I used PVM to develop a parallel Branch and Bound code and some
numerical prallel algorithms.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>

about 5: some HP720, HP730, HP735, SUN10, RISC6000 Ibm...and SP1 Ibm.
Usually not all together...

Best regards
Angela Gelli

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Klaus Wechsler <wechsler@lstm.uni-erlangen.de>

Dear PVM Project Team,

of course, I'd like to answer your questions:

I will use PVM today. Currently, I intend to change from
3.2.6 to 3.3.6. I work on Computational Fluid Dynamics. Until
now, I worked with SGI and SUN workstation cluster, but only
with a limited number of machines (4-5).

Thank you very much for your interest.

Klaus Wechsler
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: garda@ief-paris-sud.fr (Patrick Garda)

Are you using PVM today?
YES
What are your application(s)?
Writing and running parallel programs for neural networks,
image processing, simulated annealing
and Monte-Carlo simulation of electronic devices.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
6 SUN workstations with Ethernet,
16 DEC ALPHA farm with GIGASWITCH.

We plan to use it on an IBM SP1 with 8 processors in 1995.

Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
GO ON, We need you.
Your help is much appreciated.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: radtke@imbe05.imbe.uni-bremen.de (Stefan Radtke)

> Are you using PVM today?
YES
>
> What are your application(s)?

Parallel test pattern generation for combinatorial, digital circuits.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
About 1 to 20 SUN workstations from sparc 1+ to sparc 10

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

Nice tool. Seems to become standard !
Furhtermore your response time for questions concerning problems is
superb ! (I asked 2 or three times and Al Geist answered at the same
day, some hours later)

Thank YOU guys !

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Stefan Radtke 				 Univ. of Bremen |
|					 	 Dept.of Microelectronics|
| E-Mail: radtke@imbe.uni-bremen.de	 	 P.O. Box 330 440 |
| Voice: ++49 421 218-4439		 	 D-28334 Bremen |
| Fax: 	 ++49 421 218-4318 			 Germany |
| |
| Home: |
| Voice: ++49 421 616 7626 |
| Fax: ++49 421 616 7627		 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: kraft@busch.bauwesen.uni-dortmund.de (Manfred Krafczyk)
> Are you using PVM today?
>
We are about to examine to use PVM as an alternative
to EXPRESS which shows some instabilities
when using many nodes (>15) in our workstation cluster.
We have just installed XPvm and ran succesfully some
'hello_world' tests, but the main work is still to do.

> What are your application(s)?
>
We are doing Fluid-Flow simulations with Lattice-Gas methods
and Traffic Flow simulations with Cellular Automata,
beside we are planning to do Finite Element parallelization.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
We did the tests with up to 35 machines HP 715-50 and 735-100
(connected by standard ethernet) and the hello_worlds were o.k.,
beside we just received a Parsytec cluster with 16 nodes based on
the Power-PC chip but this machine is being installed right now
and there are no results yet.

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
>
Having used EXPRESS in the last years I very much appreciated
functions like automatic domain decomposition (mapping a matrix
onto a cluster of nodes) and utility functions that effectively
help sending parts of rows and columns of matrices through the
system effectively. As these are tasks that almost everybody needs
is there something in progress or even completed yet ?
It would be a waste of time if everybody hacks these things
on his own ?!

Best regards
Manfred Krafczyk

--
****************************************************
 *
Dipl.Phys. Manfred Krafczyk *
 *
Lehrstuhl NMI *
(Numerische Methoden und Informationsverarbeitung) *
FB Bauwesen, Universitaet Dortmund *
 *
August-Schmidt-Str. 8 *
44221 Dortmund GERMANY *
									 *
 *
Tel.: ++49 231 755 2093 *
Fax : ++49 231 755 2532 *
e-mail: kraft@busch.bauwesen.uni-dortmund.de *
 *
****************************************************

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: fares@host11.lctn.u-nancy.fr (M. Fares)

Yes I used PVM

My application is the computational chemistry

M. Fares
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Marcus Naraidoo <Marcus.Naraidoo@src.bae.co.uk>
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Yes

>
> What are your application(s)?

Applications are written in house to perform computational stealth calculations
which can be parallelised to run on a variety of platforms, such as SG
Challenge and CRAY T3D machines. Efficiency on such platforms is high.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>

Only a network of DEC alpha machines.

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

It would be useful if, upon taking a node out of the network, all of the
results didn't become jibberish. The probability of node removal increases
with the number of available nodes and this appears to be the situation when
PVM would be most useful.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Morten Hermanrud <morten.hermanrud@usit.uio.no>

> Are you using PVM today?

	We are using PVM on our supercomputer cluster where I am
	system architect and administrator.

> What are your application(s)?

	Our users are mainly scientific numeric calculations.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

	We have 16 IBM RS/6000 model 590 and a 16 node SP2.

Our main problem with PVM (from a system administrator viewpoint) is the
many incompatible versions that needs to be maintained.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
 Morten Hermanrud, (Morten.Hermanrud@ibm.no)
 AIX System Engineer, IBM Nordic Scientific and Technical Solutions
 #include <std.disclaimer.h>

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: gallego@tcomhp20.epfl.ch (Cesar Jose Gallego)

> Are you using PVM today?

Not for the moment but we certainly will. We are currently installing an ATM
Local Area Network in our Lab based on the Fore Systems' switch and their
adaptation cards for workstations. As I saw that a PVM version that works with
the Fore System API exists, I'm waiting our LAN to be ready to do the first
tests with PVM over ATM.

>
> What are your application(s)?

Distributed simulations of ATM switches and networks.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Our Lab. currently has about 15 HP workstations and 3 SUNs. 8 of these
stations will be connected through our ATM switch. The others are connected to
the Ethernet backbone.

THIS MAIL HAS BEEN SENT IN 100% RECYCLED BANDWIDTH.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ Cesar Jose Gallego ~
~ Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne ~
~ Laboratoire de Telecommunications ~
~ 1015 LAUSANNE ~
~ SWITZERLAND ~
~ ~
~ E-mail : gallego@tcom.epfl.ch ~
~ Phone : (+41 21) 693 46 93 ~
~ Fax : (+41 21) 693 26 83 ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <tarrico@mozart.istel.ing.unipg.it>

I'm using PVM, release 3.3.3, currently being upgraded.
The applications running in PVM environment are linear algebra routines
and Finite-Difference Time-Domain codes (for the analysis of electromagnetic
propagation in wave-guides).
At the moment, I have clustered 2 HP ws (715 and 735) and an IBM 320h.
I'm going to add an IBM 250t also.
A porting of other applications, including some combinatorial optimization
codes using Tabu Search methods and Finite-Difference Frequaency-Dependent
Time-Domain codes, is planned in the next future under PVM.
Two main fields can be identified for our use of PVM codes:

1) Microwave wave-guides engineering

2) Effects of Electromagnetic radiations on biological systems

That's all.

Bye bye and happy new year to everyone!

Luciano Tarricone
Dept. of Electronics
Universita' di Perugia, S. Lucia-Canetola, 06131, Perugia, Italy
tel: 0039-75-5852663
fax: 0039-75-5852654
e-mail: tarricone@istel.ing.unipg.it
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: nlangloh@etro1.vub.ac.be (Nils Langloh)
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Not this week, but we are planning to use it on a regular basis from
the 23th January on.

> What are your application(s)?

We are developing a simulator for parallel optical computer
architectures (optsim).

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Simultaneously: 12 machines:

7 SparcStation 20 running SunOs 4.1.3
1 SparcStation 10 with 2 processors running SunOs 4.1.3
1 SparcStation 2 running SunOs 4.1.3
1 SparcStation 1+ running SunOs 4.1.3
1 SparcStation 20 with 2 processors running SunOs 5.3
1 SparcStation 10 running SunOs 5.3

Best wishes,

Nils Langloh

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: wsanpv@win.tue.nl (P.W.C. Vosbeek)
>
>Are you using PVM today?
No, I used it only a few months ago.
>
>What are your application(s)?
I am working an a method (Contour Dynamics) for simulating vortices in
two dimensional flows of inviscid, incompressible fluids.
>
>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
I used PVM with SUN workstations. The number of machines I used vary from
3 to 16. I am planning to work also with PVM on a Sillicon Graphics Power
Challenge.
>
>Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

Regards, Pauline Vosbeek

------------------------

Pauline Vosbeek
wsanpv@win.tue.nl

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <demeure@inf.enst.fr>

>Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

>What are your application(s)?

I use it for teaching purposes in the context of a module on parallel
computing. The students can experiment with various parallel algorithms
including matrix multiply, adaptive quadrature, merge sort, distributed
control algorithm (mutual exclusion, deadlock detection, etc), travelling
salesman problem.

I also use it for research purposes (as a plateform for building a DSM system).

We also use it occasionnally for student projects.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
I have used it with up to 10 SUN4/SUN SPARC workstations.

>Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
>Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
Keep it simple and well documented.

ID

-------------------------------------------------------------------
| Isabelle Demeure Tel : 33-1-45-81-72-86 |
| Departement Informatique Fax : 33-1-45-81-31-19 |
| TELECOM Paris Email : demeure@inf.enst.fr|
| 46, rue Barrault |
| 75634 Paris cedex 13 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: nimg@letterbox.rl.ac.uk (Nick Gould)

In answer to your questions:

? Are you using PVM today ?

Not today, but recently.

? What are your application(s) ?

Two kinds:

Genetic algorithms for large-scale optimization. The function evaluations,
for our application, being performed in parallel. As these are by far the
dominant cost, good speedups are possible.

Solution of linear systems using both direct and iterative methods.
Parallel multifrontal methods for the direct solution, and element-by-
element preconditioned cg for the iterative solution.

? How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM ?

At one time I had a network running between the UK, France and Canada.
This involved:

6 Suns, 2 RS/6000s, 6 Alphas, 5 HP/9000s and a YMP in the UK,
8 Suns and 4 RS/6000s in France and
2 Suns in Canada

Hope this is useful,

Nick
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: brozzis@falstaff (Stefano Brozzi)
>
> Are you using PVM today?

 Yes, for about 8hrs.

>
> What are your application(s)?

 I'm programming in PVM environment.
 I'm using XPVM and HeNCE.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
 From a min. of 2 to a max of 10 or 12.
 8 SUN4, 4 SUN Solaris

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

 no comments for now.

 Brozzi Stefano
 brozzis@verdi.eng.unipr.it
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Philippe Besse" <besse@corail.cict.fr>

> Are you using PVM today?
	I'll use it next year.

> What are your application(s)?
	statistical simulation (resampling as bootstrap)
	and may be stochastic algorithm (simulated annealing, genetic)
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
	?
--
 o

 o
 o
 -----------------------------o ------------------------------------------
 | Philippe C. Besse || ||||||||| CNRS U.A. D0745 |
 | Laboratoire de |||| o o || Universit'e Paul Sabatier |
 | Statistique et || |||| |||| 118, route de Narbonne |
 | Probabilit'es || |||| 31062 Toulouse cedex |
 | Email: besse@cict.fr ||||||| ||| France |
 | Tel: (33)61.55.61.42 Fax: (33)61.55.60.89 |
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Riccardo Valente <valente@hp720.cm.sissa.it>

> Are you using PVM today?
Yes (IBM's PVM/6000 version, though).

> What are your application(s)?
Solid State calculations, based on Density Functional Theory,
Pseudopotentials and Plane Wave Expansion. Lots of communications.
Speedup ~6 w/ 8-node SP1

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
IBM RS6000/580 cluster and 8-node IBM SP1.

Best regards,
Riccardo Valente

--
Riccardo Valente e-mail: valente@hp720.sissa.it
International School for Telephone: [+]39 40 3787428
Advanced Studies Home: [+]39 40 5700022
Via Beirut 2 [+]39 432 532252
I-34100 Trieste, Italy FAX: [+]39 40 3787528
FEGS Ltd
Principal Software Engineer Oakington House Oakington
 Cambridge CB4 5AF England
 tel: +44(0)1223 237111
p.harriss@fegs.co.uk fax: +44(0)1223 234192
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Ian Jones <ian.p.jones@aea.orgn.uk>

My group use PVM in some parallelisation work we are doing. The application is
Computational Fluid Dynamics. Machines are IBM SP1/SP2 and clustered
workstations.
Suggestions for improvements. Forgive my naive question, but I thought MPI was
supposed to be the improvement for PVM, and the long term future. I have no
suggestions for improvement, except to say that the most important issues are
standardisation, robustness and speed. It is relativly easy to change message
passing libraries, but I don't want lots of different versions, for different
versions of PVM, MPI, PARMACS...... If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

 *******************************************************************
 * *
 * Ian P Jones e-mail ian.p.jones@aea.orgn.uk *
 * CFDS phone +44 235 43 2464 *
 * B8.19 Harwell Laboratory fax +44 235 433 6671 / 3174 *
 * Oxon OX11 0RA *
 * UK *
 * *
 *******************************************************************

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: aler@soleil.serma.cea.fr (Gregoire ALLAIRE - LETR)

Yes, I use PVM.

Applications : domain decomposition method in fluid dynamics.

Machines : a network of workstations, or a combination of a CRAY C94
host) and a CRAY T3D (slaves).

Gregoire Allaire
CEA (French Atomic Energy Commission)

N.B. Any opinions expressed here are solely mine, and not of my organization.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: petters@lpr.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de (Stefan Petters)

Dear Colleagues,

as my english isn't the best, I apologize in advance for the various
mistakes.

We are working on an offline task-allocation-manager for a multiprozessor-
realtime-system. The goal is to find an as cheap a possible allocation of
the tasks on this system without any deadlines. The whole task-allocation-
manager is separated in four parts:
	1. grafical editor (for defining the system)
	2. alalyzer (for checking all deadlines)
	3. optimizer with simulated annealing
	4. optimizer with genetic algorithms (GA)
Since the number of possible sollutions is to big to compute complete, the
given heuristics are used.
The GA-optimizer is my part to implement. To compete with the simulated
annealing in speed, I'm trying to spawn each Individual of the GA on one
extra computer.
GA is based on the evoluation process found by Darwin. Each Individual
contains an task-allocation-table (TAT), exchanges with other Individuals
genes (parts of that TAT), mutates slightly and selects the fitest for
forming the next generation.
I first tried sockets and PVM and have decided to use PVM.
In the next week we are trying to move the editor aout of the programm in
an extra task as it is bound to LINUX.
The used computers are:
	3 DEC alphas
	3 LINUX (i486)
	5 IBM 6000 (RS6K)
	4 SUN4
	2 MIPS

I was amzed how easy the PVM-system was installed on all our computers.

One thing I'm not happy about is that LINUX-machines need somtimes about
one minute to follow the pvm_addhost call, but I fear this is a
LINUX-problem and not yours. Sometimes the PVM-deamons don't follow an halt
command, and loop abandoned on the host. I'm trying a workaround with a
shell-script. An security system watching over lost hosts and lost
tasks would be a fine thing.

As conclusion I want to thank you for PVM as it has spared me much
frustration with sockets. I hope I could help you.

Best wishes
Stefan Petters

Email: petters@lpr.e-technik-tu-muenchen.de
Phone: ++49-89/2105-3549
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: laurent giraud <lgiraud@asci.fr>

Hello from France,
I am not using PVM yet, but only amoug 2 hours a week,
my appllication running under PVM is cellular automaton
for hydrodynamics (Lattice Boltzmann method).
I have 5 HP 712 (HPPA), 1 Silicon G (SGI5) and a Linux (Pentium 90 with Intel
 bug!!) under PVM.
 Suggestion:It would be wonderful if one day I can pick up a part of an array
 and directly send it to an another process!!
 Sorry for my very bad english...
--
*******************************************************************************
* Laurent GIRAUD *
* _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ *
* APPLICATIONS SCIENTIFIQUES _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ *
* DU CALCUL INTENSIF _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ *
* C.N.R.S. _/_/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/ _/ *
* Batiment 506 _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ *
* Universite Paris Sud _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ *
* 91405 ORSAY cedex FRANCE _/ _/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ *
* Tel : 69.82.41.97 *
* *
* e-mail: lgiraud@asci.fr *
*******************************************************************************
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Werner Hett <HEW@info.isbiel.ch>

> Are you using PVM today?

No, but maybe next week.

>
> What are your application(s)?

- Parallel programming course (undergraduate level).
- We have developed a library of C functions called PPC (Portable
 Parallel C) which is based in part on PVM. For further details see
 http://www.info.isbiel.ch/dpt/info/parallel/

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

About 30 Suns (Solaris 2), a few NeXTs, lots of PCs with Linux.

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

Support of light weight processes or threads would have helped us
a lot (of course this is not only a problem of PVM, we know!).

We appreciate your work very much. Thank you for your effort!

Best wishes,

Werner Hett

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Werner Hett, Ingenieurschule Biel, Postfach 1180, CH-2501 Biel-Bienne
Tel +41-32-266 302 Fax +41-32-234 377 hett@info.isbiel.ch Switzerland
---------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Andrea OMODEO <andrea@frodo.cra.enel.it>

> Are you using PVM today?
Yes

> What are your application(s)?
We are simulating power plant simulators on a network of workstations.
Our work has been presented at the 1994 European PVM Users Group Meeting

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
1 SUN, 2 RS/6000, 2 DEC ALPHA
We can use an IBM SP/1 (8 nodes) for testing.

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
We badly need a LAN-based version of PVM!!!.

			Andrea Omodeo & Alfredo Femminella
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|Andrea Omodeo				e-mail: omodeo@cra.enel.it	 |
|ENEL - Centro Ricerca di Automatica		andrea@omodeo.cra.enel.it |
|v. Volta 1 - 20093 Cologno Monzese (MI) http://www.cra.enel.it/~andrea/ |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: (Niandong Fang)fang@ifi.unibas.ch

1. Are you using PVM today?
We are still using PVM today but for student's course.

2. What are your application(s)?
In the last year, we used it to develop some examples as

- matrix multiplication,

- warshall alg

- game of life
- stencil

3. How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
Workstation cluster (NeXT, SUN, VAX), SP2, etc

Comments: We are changing our PVM program to MPI, as MPI seems ad hoc
standard in the future for message passing.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Markus Baum <Markus.Baum@cerfacs.fr>

Helo,

to answer your questions:

Yes i am using PVM today (actually i am using PVM nearly every
day).

I am running my own CFD code for direct numerical simulation of
Navier Stokes equations.

Actually i am using SP1, SP2 and RS6000 clusters using FDDI
in configuration of 1 to 6 processors.

Bye, bye

 Baum
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: auge@msmfs1.mw.tu-dresden.de (Andreas Auge)

We are using PVM 3.3.4 today.
We are developing CFD code (FEM, Domain Decomposition).
We used not more than 7 machines in parallel.
Our code runs on PC386/486 (LINUX),
 SUN SPARCstations (SunOS 4.1.2)
 HP 9000/735 (HP-UX 9.05),
 DEC ALPHA (OSF/1).
We used these machines heterogen in parallel.
Comments:
unfotunately PVM is not available (public domain) for
the German Transputer systems (Parsytec) based on T805 Transputers
and PowerPC Chips. And, the commercially available products
(PVM/PARIX - Genias software, Germany) do not work satisfactory
and are only PVM 3.2 compatible.

Best wishes,
A. Auge
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Stephane.Vialle" <vialle@esemetz.ese-metz.fr>

>Are you using PVM today?
	Not today, but we have used it last year.

>What are your application(s)?
 We have used PVM for student projects, they have discovered parallelism
 easily with PVM.
 We work on the ParCeL project: a PARallel CEllular Language for AI.
 Today it runs on MIMD architectures with a dedicated virtual machine.
 But we want install ParCeL on PVM and make benchmarks in order to
 compar with our virtual machine.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 We have used PVM on sparc stations.

Stephane Vialle (vialle@ese-metz.fr)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Dietmar Lammers <lammers@GOEDEL.UNI-MUENSTER.DE>
 >
 > Are you using PVM today?
yes (or at least tomorrow ...)
 >
 > What are your application(s)?
I am implementing a distributed object oriented system (MOM), which
uses PVM as it's base routing system.
 >
 > How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
SUN4 and SUN4SOL2.
Not more, because my system uses cmu-CommonLisp, and in this state of
the Implementation I've installed cmucl only under this both OSs.
 >
 > Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
To avoid overhead with process grouping, I use a pseudo-broadcast to
all running PVM-processes (calling pvm_tasks(0,...) first, then
sending multicast to each host). This may be a useful function for the
PVM system.
I don't know how to get a unique TAG for my messages -- couldn't PVM
provide some function for this purpose?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jean-Luc Pons <jluc@tome.cbs.univ-montp1.fr>

>Are you using PVM today?

	- Yes

>What are your application(s)?

	- Molecular Modelisation; Distance Geometry...

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

	- 4 machines Hewlett Packard (3*735,715) , for intence
	- I'm going to add Silicon Graphics machines (4 Indigo)

					jlPons@cbs.univ-montp1.fr
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: dag.bjorge@dnmi.no (Dag Bjoerge)

Are you using PVM today?
Yes

What are your application(s)?
Limited Area weather forecast models.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
Development on Cray YMP.

Dag Bjoerge
DNMI (Norwegian Meteorological Institute)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Nigel Starling <N.A.Starling@durham.ac.uk>

> Are you using PVM today?
>
 The IT Service at the University of Durham, UK is participating in
 research to schedule PVM tasks using CONDOR. Other research groups
 in the university also use PVM.
>
> What are your application(s)?
>
 Two demonstration applications have been ported to use PVM in
 a CONDOR environment.

 1. Non-Linear Least-Squares functional evaluation.

 2. Image Rendering.
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
 HP-UX 9.0x on a pool of 1 x HP9000/750,
 4 x HP9000/730
 50 x HP9000/710,

--- Nigel

===============================================================================
Nigel Starling					Tel: 0191-374-2872
Research Programmer				Fax: 0191-374-3741
IT Service - University of Durham
Science Site, South Road
DURHAM DH1 3LE					Mail:N.A.Starling@durham.ac.uk
===============================================================================

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Fabien Coelho <coelho@chailly.ensmp.fr>

> Are you using PVM today?

Yes, I am. I use PVM as a message passing library for a prototype
HPF compiler.

> What are your application(s)?

Nice dataparallel applications. Seismic codes...

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Network of a few Sparc Stations, and some tests were run on a CM5.

Fabien.

--
Fabien COELHO __ http://www.cri.ensmp.fr/~coelho __ coelho@cri.ensmp.fr
 CRI, ENSMP, 35, rue Saint-Honor, 77305 Fontainebleau cedex, France
 vox: 33.1.64.69.48.52, fax: 33.1.64.69.47.09, std: 33.1.64.69.47.08
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: rcarbonell <rcarbonell@ija.csic.es>

We are using PVM in seismic processing applications in particular:
Kirchoff Pre-Stack depth migation. I have implemented the program with PVM calls and I am using 9 IBM RISC 6000, different models

I works pretty good.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Paul Gipson" <paul@mort.reading.sgi.com>
>
> Are you using PVM today?
>

YES

> What are your application(s)?
>

CHEMISTRY, CFD, FEA + others

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>

SGI multiprocessor servers

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

The shared-memory implementation is extremely unreliable and
essentially not usable.

--

...........................................................................
. . .
. Paul Gipson . Opinions are mine, .
. Sales Support Mgr, High Performance Systems. not my paymaster's. .
. Email: paul@reading.sgi.com . .
. Tel: +44-1734-257618 (direct) . Cracking Toast, Gromit ! .
. Voicemail: +44-1734-257501 (7618#) . .
. Fax: +44-1734-257505 . .
...........................................................................
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: zfb@ibmpar.elis.rug.ac.be (Zhang Fu-Bo)
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

>
> What are your application(s)?

We developed an environment for automatical generation of PVM
code from a serial application. We use Gauss-Jordan elimination
and Matrix Multiplication to test PVM code.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>

Normally, 4-12 machines are used. There are SUN Sparcs, IBM AIX,
HP computers.

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
>
Yes, we find if PVM supports shared memory address space,
it is much easy to write users' applications.

Best regards,

fubo ZHANG

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Josep Maria Garrell i Guiu <josepmg@els.url.es>
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

>
> What are your application(s)?

Paral.lel simulated annealing.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

LINUX, HPPA, SUN4.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: sven.graupner@informatik.tu-chemnitz.de (Sven Graupner)

Dear PVM-Team,

> Are you using PVM today?
Yes, we've just started ''playing with it''

> What are your application(s)?
One of my students investigates performance benefits
of a ''parallel make'' application in a network of
workstations, which runs 'make -n' and distributes
the generated command lines via PVM and carries them
out remoteley.
\\
Has any comparable work already been done somewhere?
Is there a parallel make application?

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
We have a Pool of 25 Sun/ELC,IPC workstations.

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
We have just started working with PVM and it really seems
easy to use.
Wishes for improvements will shurely rise while working
with PVM. If I have ideas, I'll let You know.

Good luck,

	Sven

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name: Dipl.Inf. Sven Graupner
Institute: Technische Universitaet Chemnitz
 Fakultaet fuer Informatik, Lehrstuhl Betriebssysteme
Address: Strasse der Nationen 62, 09111 Chemnitz, Germany
PF: 964, 09009 Chemnitz
Phone: (+49)-371-531-1390
Fax: (+49)-371-531-1530
e-mail: sgr@informatik.tu-chemnitz.de
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Bill Pearson <W.E.Pearson@lut.ac.uk>

Hello,
just a quick reply to the survey.
Yes I am using PVM today.
I am using it to switch between one of three batch programs in an interactive flow solver. With a view to expanding it into a parrallel machine at a later date
The machines I am using so far are sparc2 and sparc10 (running solaris 2.3) and dec 5000 machines.
Thanks for the code.
Bill.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: umberto@morino.ing.uniroma1.it (Umberto Iemma)

1) Yes, I am currently using pvm version 3.2. (I am going to install
 the new version, together with the first release of Xpvm).

2) My activity deals with CFD application using Boundary Integral Equations
 approaches (very high parallel efficiency) in the transonic range.

3) I use: RISC 6000 mods. 320/360/375/3AT
 SGI INDY/INDIGO2
 IBM SP2 (not yet implemented)

 Bye

 Dr. Umberto Iemma
 Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: kowallik@ifh.de (Rainer Kowallik)
>
> Are you using PVM today?
Not today and propably not this week, but I have used it in the past
and will need it in the future. However, my plannings are going in the
MPI Direction.

>
> What are your application(s)?
We have an IBM-SP2 (10 nodes, HPS) and an SGI-challenge (14 CPUs, SHM)
which are used for calculations, data aquisition, data analysis
and simulation in High energy physics.
We have successfully converted a simulation program for muon showers
and are working on some kind of half automated process which aids
physicists in converting existing FORTRAN code into a parallel form.
Plans are to use parallel computers for Data aquisition.
Up to now we are investigating different models of parallel
programming and theier use for our applications.
For testing purposes we have develloped a PVM-driver for MPICH and a
SHM-driver for MPICH with the aim to test, if we would be able to use
MPI for special real time parallel processors.
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
An IBM-SP2 with 10 nodes and HPS, over IP emulation and standard Ethernet.
An SGI-challenge with 14 processors and shared memory.

>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
I dislike the way PVM forces a user to make links in ~/pvm/arch to the
executable. Although I can see that you need such a mechanism for
a heterogenous environment it would be nice, if PVM would just take
the path to the actual executable if all architectures are the same.
This would ease the task for a computing center to provide simple
users with parallel applications.

The Shared memory implementation of PVM still needs some attention.
The situation has improved but is far away from being perfect.
I would not give any parallel application based on PVM-SGIMP
to our normal users. The risc would be too high, that the machine resources
will be blocked completely.

Apart from my critics above PVM is really a very nice and efficient tool.
Thank you for the work you have done.

Rainer Kowallik, Postdoc at DESY-IfH Zeuthen.
kowallik@ifh.de

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: frolkovic@fmph.uniba.sk (Peter Frolkovic)

Hi!

 I am "maintainer" of PVM at our Faculty of Mathematics and Physics
(Comenius University Bratislava, SLOVAKIA) and I got (forwarded from
sk2eu.eunet.sk) your questions about using PVM.

Are you using PVM today?
========================

 Yes. Especially one my graduate student is now working intensively with it.

What are your application(s)?
=============================

 They are more "pedagogical". Student is testing different Gauss-Seidel
methods for problem arising from 1D parabolic PDE, I plan (if ...) to work
with the same for 3D problem (with PLTMG in FORTRAN from Netlib).

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
==========================================================

 Once I tried 8 different DECstations with Ultrix and 7 SUN SparcStations
with Solaris.

Any comments and suggestions ...
================================

 PVM (and especially XPVM) is working well for us. If some things will be
decided about my future in some manner, I plan to devote more time to PVM
and I am sure it will be used by more and more people at our faculty.

 Continue with your nice and useful work!

With the best wishes

Peter Frolkovic
Department of Numerical Analysis
Comenius University Bratislava
SLOVAKIA

frolkovic@fmph.uniba.sk

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <carle@onera.fr>

I'am using PVM for developing inter process commnucation in actor Langage
named MeringIV (with load balancing module).

actually a prototype of MeringIV runs on SUN4 machines.

			 Carle Patrice
				 DES/SIA

			 O.N.E.R.A
		 29 Av. de la division Leclerc
		 B.P 72 92320 Chatillon CEDEX
		 addresse elec: carle@onera.fr
		 tel : 46-73-43-72
			 fax : 46-73-41-49
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Malte Gross <gross@drfmc.ceng.cea.fr>

Thank you for your mail message asking about the use of PVM.
Yes, I use PVM for about 2 months now. I wrote a code performing
a 3-dimensional FFT on a cubic grid. The cube is divided into
2-D slices, each one residing on a single processor. This code
is part of a larger project pointing toward the solution of
Maxwells equation for a given charge distribution.
Up to the now, I mainly used an emulator on a SUN4, but I'm turning
over to a CRAY T3D with 128 processor nodes for the production runs.
I hope that this information will be useful for you.
M. Gross
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: frelle@math-tech.dk (Lars Frellesen)

Are you using PVM today?

	yes

What are your application(s)?

	A parallel direct linear equation solver

	An oil reservoir simulator.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

	1 Sparc 10 SunOs 4.1.3 machine

 Lars Frellesen
__________________________________________________________________________

 Math-Tech Aps E-mail : frelle@math-tech.dk
 Kildeskovsvej 67
 2820 Gentofte Tlf : +45 31 63 69 88
 DK - Denmark Fax : +45 31 68 31 95
__________________________________________________________________________

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Kees Kassels <c.g.m.kassels@math.tudelft.nl>

 PVM Project Team,

 - We are using PVM for our parallel application.
 We are solving the Navier-Stokes equations ( fluid dynamics)
 using domain decomposition. These domains are distributed to
 different machines using PVM.

 - We have used 20 machines all HP725 or HP735
--
Kees Kassels
Fac. of Technical Mathematics and Informatics
Delft University of Technology
Mekelweg 4
P.O. Box 5031
2600 GA Delft
The Netherlands

Tel. (31) 15 - 783639
Fax. (31) 15 - 787209
E-mail: c.g.m.kassels@math.tudelft.nl
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: mem1001@cus.cam.ac.uk (M.E. Mura)

> Are you using PVM today?
As a basis for mpi through MPICH.

> What are your application(s)?
Quantum Chemical codes.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
Cray T3D (2)
SGI workstations indigos (4)

--
Dr Michael Mura, PD Research Fellow, Theoretical Department,Univ. Chem. Labs.,
 Lensfield Rd, CB2 1EW, Cambridge, UK.
memura@theor.ch.cam.ac.uk, mem1001@cus.cam.ac.uk, ph +44-223-336423 (fax 336362)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Maarten Hagen <hagen@AMOCF4.AMOLF.NL>

Here the answers to the posed questions:

1) No, I am not using PVM today,

2) The applications are: - computations of phase diagrams
			 - computation of viscous flow.

3) We have used PVM on 13 machines, all Silicon Graphics:
		About 7 RS4000,
		and 6 RS600.

--

Groeten
	Maarten

020-6081229 (AMOLF)
020-6231759 (THUIS)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: berthold@maral.kfunigraz.ac.at (Guenther H. Berthold)

It was dark and stormy on Jan 6, 7:04pm, when pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu wrote:
> Subject: PVM survey
your message> Dear Colleague,
your message> In order to improve PVM we are trying to understand how
your message> people are using the system. Your feedback is important.
your message> Could you take a moment to answer three questions.
your message>
your message> Are you using PVM today?

Yes

your message>
your message> What are your application(s)?

Application for research in the following areas:
	theoretical chemistry (GAMESS)
	high-energy physics
	solid state physics
	mathematics

your message>
your message> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

about 13

your message>
your message> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

Since we are administrating PVM by the central computing center, we
would like to see more administration tools for load balancing and
log file handling.

your message> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
your message>
your message> Your help is much appreciated.
your message>
your message> Best wishes,
your message> The PVM Project Team
your message>
your message> ps. Previous survey results are available through World Wide
Web at
your message> http://www.epm.ornl.gov/pvm/
your message>
your message> pps. We apologize if you received multiple copies of this
message.
your message> Our first attempt at sending the message uncovered a bug in our
mailer.
>-- End of excerpt from pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu

--
*****************************************************************************
* Guenther H. Berthold *
* EDV-Zentrum email: guenther.berthold@kfunigraz.ac.at *
* Karl-Franzens-Universitaet Graz X.400: berthold@edvz.uni-graz.ada.at *
* Universitaetsstrasse 27 phone: +43 316 380 2241 *
* A-8010 Graz fax: +43 316 326037 *
* Austria - Europe *
*****************************************************************************

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: botorog@zeus.informatik.rwth-aachen.de (Georg Botorog)

Hello,

Although I haven't yet used PVM, I might do it sometimes in the (not very near)
future. I plan to implement a parallel language with algorithmic skeletons.
Therefore, the idea of of building upon PVM is not central to my pursuit. I
have thought of the PVM (or maybe MPI, but PVM seems to me more mature at the
time) interface as a means to implement my language on different architectures,
mainly a Parsytec transputer network and a Sparc workstation cluster. I am aware
that the use of a standard library will lead to a slow-down of my programs,
and since I have to get the best possible speedups, the standard library is,
as I already have said, not central to my project. Nevertheless, depending on
how things will evolve, I will keep you informed on any progress.

To summarize:

* I am not using PVM today, but might do so in the future

* I am planning to implement a parallel language with algorithmic skeletons

* The available hardware consists at the time of a transputer network
 (T800's from Parsytec) and a bunch of Sun Sparc workstations. Furthermore,
 some other machines, such as an Intel Paragon, might be available.

I truly doubt that my answer will be of importance to you, but if anything
changes, I will contact you.

Best regards,

Horatiu Botorog

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Yves Epelboin <epelboin@silice.lmcp.jussieu.fr>

> Are you using PVM today?
yes
>
> What are your application(s)?
Simulation of white beam synchrotron topographs.
This is an application of the Dynamical Theory of X-Rays
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
3 only: 2 IBM + 1 SGI

-------------------------------------------------------------
: Yves EPELBOIN :
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
: Lab. Mineralogie-Cristallographie, UA 09 CNRS, :
: Case 115, 4 place Jussieu :
: F-75252 PARIS CEDEX 05 :
: phone: 33 1 44 27 52 11 :
: Fax: 33 1 44 27 37 85 :
: E-Mail: epelboin@lmcp.jussieu.fr :
: WWW : http://www.lmcp.jussieu.fr/~epelboin :
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
: UNIVERSITE PIERRE ET MARIE CURIE PARIS FRANCE :
+-----------------------------------------------------------+

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Derek Nitch" <NITCH@odie.ee.wits.ac.za>

In reply to your request for information :

> Are you using PVM today?
Yes.

> What are your application(s)?
Solution of Maxwells equations using method of moments.
Analysis of electromagnetic structures.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
3 Sparc 10's
1 RS6000

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

Development and debugging of our code was done under OS/2 on a single
486-66. No problems were encountered during this stage of the
development. However we could not get a network of OS/2 machines to
work. PVM failed to connect to / locate the other processors.
Unfortunately, I do not have the OS/2 TCPIP developers kit and I am
therefore unable to find out what the problem is.

All the best
Derek Nitch.
**********************************************************************
* Derek Nitch Dept. of Electrical Engineering *
* University of the Witwatersrand Computational Electromagnetics *
* Johannesburg nitch@odie.ee.wits.ac.za *
* South Africa *
**********************************************************************
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: ilpide@CS.UTK.EDU (Ilpide)

	Dear sir,

	We've been using PVM for a few months now. The target program
	is a finite element one first developped for a shared memory
	multiprocessor and adapted for PVM using a SPMD model.

	The PVM program runs on a SGI cluster (we've used up to 4 of
	them) and has been compiled on a single LINUX based PC.
	We will, in the near future use this program on a small PC
	network (probably with LINUX).

	Programs are written in fortran and good speedups were obtained.

	If you ever need more information please just e-mail me.
	I'll be glad to give you more details.

	Yours sincerely,

		E. ILPIDE

#--------------------------------------------------------------------------#
 EMMANUEL ILPIDE | Tel : (+34) (3) 401 64 85
 Centro Internacional de Metodos | Fax : (+34) (3) 401 65 17
 Numericos en Ingenieria (CIMNE) | E-mail : ilpide@agripa.upc.es
 Barcelona - SPAIN | vilpide@etseccpb.upc.es
		 *****
 IRC : Manolo (Not the one you knew)
#--------------------------------------------------------------------------#

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <Ann.Petrie@newcastle.ac.uk>

> Are you using PVM today?

No - I have changed jobs

> What are your application(s)?

Currently hydrological (and graphics) Previously parallel processing in
general.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

HP700s (with HPUX 9.01) and Suns (with OS 4.1.x) Mixed or a single type.
I only used a small number of machines but I could have used up to 16
Suns and 60+ HPs.

Ann Petrie

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ann Petrie Ann.Petrie@ncl.ac.uk
Water Resource Systems Reseach Unit Room: 302, Cassie Building
Department of Civil Engineering Phone: +44 - 91 - 222 - 5614
University of Newcastle upon Tyne Fax: +44 - 91 - 222 - 6669
Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU Telex: 53654 UNINEW G
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Roger Lindell <rog@speech.kth.se>

Are you using PVM today?

Not at the moment, but we are planning to try it.

What are your application(s)?

Speech recognition using amongst other things artificial neural nets.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Planning to use it on about 18 HP 9000/7XX computers.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Pascal Amand <amand@joule.unice.fr>

Hi,

I am using PVM3.3.2 in the field of seismic ray tracing in order
to perform tomography.
The parallel architecture is master/slave, using a farming
strategy and automatic load-balancing.

I experimented PVM both on networked SUN4 workstations and CM5.

regards
Pascal

--
Pascal Amand 		 CNRS, Institut de Geodynamique (Equipe RUaDE)
250 Avenue Albert Einstein, Sophia-Antipolis, 06565 Valbonne, FRANCE
Tel : 93.95.42.54 - Fax : 93 65 27 17 - Email : amand@faille.unice.fr

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Hayat L <hayat@essex.ac.uk>

1. yes, we are using PVM.
2. We are developing a library of parallel image processing algorithms.
3. We have used up to 24 SUN4, 1 Dec ALPHA, 1 ButterFly, and 2 SiliconGraphics.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <nijtmans@NICI.KUN.NL>

Dear Colleague,

We compiled PVM for two SUN Sparcstations (type 5 and 20) and HP (apollo 700).
We plan to compile it also for SGI indy.

It works O.K., once the PVM-deamons are started, but halting
gives problems. Often if PVM is halted on the main machine, the deamons on
the other machines don't stop. I then have to kill the processes manually
and remove the files pvmd.xxx (Both XPVM and the PVM-console have this)

This problem occurs on all machines.

We plan to use PVM in the MIAMI project (http://kunpu7.psych.kun.nl/miami/),
because it looks promising for communication between agents on different hosts.

Greetings,
	Jan Nijtmans

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: diethelm@informatik.uni-hildesheim.de
 (Kai Diethelm Mitarbeiter Prof. Alten)

Dear Colleagues,

I would like to answer your questions in the PVM survey as follows:

We are running PVM on a network of twelve Sun SPARCstations (different
types: SPARCstations 1, 1+, 2, iPC, 10). However, we have only just
started this, and we are still more or less learning how to use it
for ourselves. We do not have any 'serious' applications yet,
just some experiments to se how parallelism works.

If we are successful in teaching PVM to ourselves, then we plan
to teach it to graduate students in the context of parallel
algorithms in numerical analysis, but this is going to be
somewhen in the future (no specific date yet).

Yours,
 Kai Diethelm.

---------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Kai Diethelm
Institut fuer Mathematik
Universitaet Hildesheim
Marienburger Platz 22
D-31141 Hildesheim
Germany

e-mail: diethelm@informatik.uni-hildesheim.de

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <dimitri@ibm1.mecalog.fr>

> Are you using PVM today?
Yes, I use pvm every day quite heavily.

>What are your application(s)?
I am curently building a SPMD parallel version of our soft. RADIOSS.
RADIOSS is a Finite Element package for mechanical enginieering,
used mainly to simulate car crash (but also train, planes...). The average
CPU for a full car simulation is in the 10 hours range on a CRAY YMP and
can go up to about 150 hours. Hence we (and our customers) are very interested
in parallel solutions and we build already a shared memory and a data parallel ve
parallel version. The SPMD version should become industrial end of february.
We already achieve speedups of 14.9 on 16 prcs on SP2 for academic tests.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
Right now we have worked only on IBM platforms (SP1 SP2) but we will try
other platforms within the next quarter and plane to replace the shared mem. versio
version with the SPMD one.

Regards,

Dimitri Nicolopoulos
Manager of the parallel applications
MECALOG
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: ruud@wop.wtb.tue.nl (Ruud Eggels)

I am not using PVM today, but I have used it, however, with succes
for a program that computes reduced reaction schemes, which can be used
for modeling laminar and turbulent combustion processes.
Uptil now I have used PVM up to 8 Silicon Graphics machines (Indy,
Indigo).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: j.watson1@physics.oxford.ac.uk (John Watson)
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Not in the last month.
>
> What are your application(s)?

Large floating point calculations - numerical solutions
of differential equations.
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>

Suns - Sparc 5's, Sparc 10's and Sparc Classics
Dec Alphas.
--
===============================================================
Name: John Watson		Telephone: Lab:(0865)272260
					 Home:(0865)515425
e-mail: j.watson1@physics.ox.ac.uk

"It wasn't blood in general he couldn't stand the sight of,
 it was just his blood in particular that was so upsetting."
			-(Terry Pratchett, Sourcery)
===============================================================
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <caas68@vms.strath.ac.uk>

Dear Sir
Yes I am using PVM today
Simulation of Free Surface Flows
8 Sparc ones
J. A. Cuminato

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Stefan Lang <stefan@joshua.ica3.uni-stuttgart.de>

To whom it may concern,

	1. We are using PVM in the implementation phase of our new parallel
		algorithms. Furthermore when comparing speedups on different
		parallel architectures we also consider a workstation cluster
		communicating with PVM.

	2. Our applications are parallel numerical algorithms for the solution
		of partial differential equations.The features provided are
		unstructured grids, local mesh refinement and adaptivity in the
		solution cycle. One parallel aspect of interest is the redistriution
		of the mesh on the processors gaining an equal load and low
		communication needs.
		In this field we develop fast, efficient solvers for large sparse
		matrices, especially we use the multigrid approach.

	3. Up to this time we ran PVM on clusters of SUNs, SGIs and PCs. I also
		just used the CRAY implementation of PVM on a CRAY T3D with 32 PEs.

Hope to help you.

	Stefan

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ ~
~ Stefan Lang, Numerik fuer Hoechstleistungsrechner ~
~ Institut fuer Computeranwendungen III ~
~ Pfaffenwaldring 27 IIIII CCCC A 333 ~
~ 70569 Stuttgart I C A A 3 ~
~ I C A A 333 ~
~ phone: 0711 / 685-7003 I C AAAAA 3 ~
~ email: stefan@ica3.uni-stuttgart.de IIIII CCCC A A 333 ~
~ ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Alain Dupuy <alain@elfgrc.co.uk>

Dear PVM people,
I am in charge of high performance computing applications
in one of Elf (the french Petroleum company) research lab
in London.

We have developped a parallel reservoir simulator and we do
use PVM to run it.

It is useful to us in 2 ways, first to run on our cluster of
up to 8 HP workstations (720, 750 and 735) and then because
it is supported by all vendors so we can run tests on their
machine with little modification to the code. (Cray, Convex
and IBM namely).

Regarding future directions of PVM, we are not using xpvm to
monitor our parallel programs. I have noticed a few shortcomings,
first it is very slow when the density of communications is
high. Then I think it would be great to display the source
code by clicking on the time bar for instance as it is done
for the messages.
 Best Regards, Alain Dupuy
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Kris Demuynck <demuynck@zorro.ruca.ua.ac.be>

> What are your application(s)?

We are developing a software development system for Virtual Reality
applications. This system is based on processes and communication between
them. More info can be found on the WWW-page at URL:

http://www.ruca.ua.ac.be/Memex/VEplatform/

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

We are using the following computers:

 - HP 9000/735 workstation with HP/UX 9.01
 - HP 9000/712 workstation with HP/UX 9.05
 - SUN Sparc2 with SunOS 4.1.3
 - PC 486-40MHz with Slackware Linux 1.2.0

 All computers are linked in an ethernet LAN.

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

PVM is truly a very good system for distributed processing.
We have been able to adjust our software (which ran on one computer)
to PVM within a half day!

Also, the program compiles on every machine we use without any error.
This means that PVM accomplishes some of the highest demands, being
PORTABLE !

However we also experience that the fact that PVM is build on existing
SLOW network protocols, the latency is very high. This is also because
we use lots of small messages (200-500 messages/second with 50-100 bytes
each). An improvement for small messages would be a great breakthrough.

We will continue to evaluate PVM versions in the future and use it in our
software development.

Kris.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <ag70258=40agipsm#%forwarder@agip.geis.com>

Dear collegue,
I appreciated your mail concerning the PVM survey. Although we have not yet
installed PVM, I guess our answer could be useful to you.

>>Are you using PVM today?
>>
No, we have not yet installed it, but we plan to do this within this year.

>>What are your application(s)?
>>
We intend to use PVM to speed up a finite difference code for acoustic/elastic
seismic modeling, developped by my R&D group. If this will effectively improve
the computation, we intend to apply the same technique to a program for finite
difference imaging of seismic data in complex media.

>>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>>
We wish to install PVM on some (2-4) SPARC 10 SUN workstations, as well as on a
forthcoming SPARC server with 4 CPU and 512MB of shared memory.

I thank you for your efforts in improving PVM, and I send you my best wishes
for 1995.

Yours truly

Vittorio De Tomasi
AGIP R&D

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Till Bubeck <bubeck@peanuts.informatik.uni-tuebingen.de>

Are you using PVM today?
Yes.

What are your application(s)?
We're developing a system for distributed computing following the fork/join
paradigm on shared-memory multiprocessors. A more complete description of this
system called "Distributed Thread System" (DTS) can be found at
http://ti-www.informatik.uni-tuebingen.de/~bubeck/doc/HPCN.ps.gz.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
Up to 40 Sun Sparc's running SunOS 4.1.3 and Solaris 2.3.

Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
PVM should be made thread-safe. This means, that the message buffer management
routines should handle multiple buffers at once. The distinction could be made
by specifying the buffer as an argument to all pvm_pack*() and pvm_unpack*()
functions.

 ,,,
 (o o)
-----------oOO--(_)--OOo-------------------------------------------
| Tilmann Bubeck | _||__ |
| Universitaet Tuebingen | / . | <- Berlin |
| Technische Informatik | | _/ |
| Sand 13, 72076 Tuebingen | |_ \ |
| Germany | /*__/ <- University of T"ubingen |
|------------------------------------------------------------------
| Tel: +49 7071 295865 Fax: +49 7071 610399 |
| Email: bubeck@peanuts.informatik.uni-tuebingen.de |
| WWW/Mosaic: http://www-ti.informatik.uni-tuebingen.de/~bubeck |
-------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <djb@maths.bath.ac.uk>

> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

> What are your application(s)?

Nothing concrete -- I've used it to write a package for distributing
data-parallel operations around a network of parallel and serial
processors.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Stardent Titan, SUN4, SGI Indigo, Meiko CS-2, Maspar MP-1

__ Duncan Batey _____________________________ School of Mathematics, __
__ Postgraduate Research Student ______ University of Bath, England. __
__"I'm suffering from mood poisoning; it must be something I hate..."__

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Mathias Duemmler <duemmler@wicx01.informatik.uni-wuerzburg.de>
>
> Are you using PVM today?
>
Yes, I'm using it for educational purposes.

> What are your application(s)?
>
I'm supposed to write a Mandelbrot-generator.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
I'm using a workstation-cluster with 10 DEC 3000 workstations.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <u01bps@aberdeen.ac.uk>

In reply to your survey, yes I will be using PVM today. I am working
on a trivial cellular automata at the moment but the main part of my
project is to build a system to run on top of PVM to provide a framework
into which many applications can be slotted just by changing small sections
of code. I am using SUN SPARCstations provided by the university and the
university computing department on two seperate networks, and there are
about 50 machines in my hostfile I think.

I hope this has been of some help to you and good luck for the future.

Barry Scott

 '''
 (o o)
 ---------------oOO--(_)--OOo----------------
==========================================================================>
BARRY SCOTT || u01bps@aberdeen.ac.uk OR
COMPUTING SCIENCE DEPARTMENT || bps@csd.abdn.ac.uk
KINGS COLLEGE ||
UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN || Latest excellent football result:
OLD ABERDEEN || AIRDRIE 3 Vs 2 DUNDEE
SCOTLAND, UK || B&Q Cup Final 6 Nov 1994
==========================================================================>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: rch@aix.fsv.cvut.cz (Rostislav Chudoba)

Dear PVM team,

We have started to use the PVM only recently on a cluster
composed of three IBM RS/6000. We use also the HeNCE
interface.

Our applications area is the development of finite
element algorithms for the analysis and optimization
of structures.

In the near future we will have the possibility to work
on the SP2 equiped with 9 processors.

Best regards and happy New Year

		------------------------------------
		Prof. Zdenek Bittnar, et. al
		Department of Structural Mechanics
		Faculty of Civil Engineering
		Czech Technical University in Prague

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Mr." Ian Masters <cgmasters.pg@swansea.ac.uk>

Reply to your PVM survey mailing.

>Are you using PVM today?

Yes, now up to version 3.3.6. The system is administered by someone else
for the department.

>What are your application(s)?

Finite Elements. There are about six people actively working on parallel
processing here in the Department of Civil Engineering, Swansea, UK

They are using PVM, MPI, and Unix for message passing.

Personally I am using PVM to solve Heat Transfer/ solidification/melting
problems.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Originally we were using our SUN4 network over ethernet, but have recently
installed a SGI iris network of four machines and a SGI challenge
( four processors, shared memory) using ATM connections.

Hope that helps,
	Ian

---------------------------------------
Ian Masters (cgmasters.pg@swan.ac.uk)
Dept. of Civil Engineering,
University of Wales, Swansea
Swansea, UK
---------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Till Bubeck <bubeck@peanuts.informatik.uni-tuebingen.de>

**********************************************************************
* This is a correction of my previous mail, which had an illegal WWW *
* address in it. Please ignore my previous mail. Thanks. *
**********************************************************************

Are you using PVM today?
Yes.

What are your application(s)?
We're developing a system for distributed computing following the fork/join
paradigm on shared-memory multiprocessors. A more complete description of this
system called "Distributed Thread System" (DTS) can be found at
http://www-ti.informatik.uni-tuebingen.de/~bubeck/doc/HPCN.ps.gz

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
Up to 40 Sun Sparc's running SunOS 4.1.3 and Solaris 2.3.

Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
PVM should be made thread-safe. This means, that the message buffer management
routines should handle multiple buffers at once. The distinction could be made
by specifying the buffer as an argument to all pvm_pack*() and pvm_unpack*()
functions.

 ,,,
 (o o)
-----------oOO--(_)--OOo-------------------------------------------
| Tilmann Bubeck | _||__ |
| Universitaet Tuebingen | / . | <- Berlin |
| Technische Informatik | | _/ |
| Sand 13, 72076 Tuebingen | |_ \ |
| Germany | /*__/ <- University of T"ubingen |
|------------------------------------------------------------------
| Tel: +49 7071 295865 Fax: +49 7071 610399 |
| Email: bubeck@peanuts.informatik.uni-tuebingen.de |
| WWW/Mosaic: http://www-ti.informatik.uni-tuebingen.de/~bubeck |
-------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Xiaoming Zhang <X.M.Zhang@swansea.ac.uk>
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

>
> What are your application(s)?

Computational Fluid Dynamics.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

20 Sun Sparc-1s.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: tvrdik@sun.felk.cvut.cz (Ing. Tvrdik Pavel CSc k336)

> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

> What are your application(s)?

Semester projects = practical programming parallel algorithms using PVM3 -
for the course Parallel Systems and Computations which is included into
the curricula of Department of Computer Science at
Czech Technical University, Prague. About 60 undergraduate
students, grouped into 30 2-student teams.
Size of the project is usually several 10KB of source code in PVM3 and C.
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

About 8 SUN4s.

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

UNix and/or PVM often crashes when all workstations are running PVM
simultaneously, which leads often to frustration of the users and
unkindness of the system administrator. In particular,
the system get sometimes halted so that the keyboard is disconnected
and the machine has to be physically switched off to be rebooted.

Regards,

Pavel

Pavel Tvrdik
Department of Comp.Sci.& Engr.
Faculty of Electrical Engineering
Czech Technical University
Karlovo nam. 13, 12135 Praha 2
Czech Republic
tel: +42 2 24-35-73-11 (office), +42 2 29-34-85 (secretary)
fax: +42 2 29 80 98
email: tvrdik@sun.felk.cvut.cz
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Xavier Defago" <defago@di.epfl.ch>

> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

> What are your application(s)?

The runtime environment for a distributed pascal on the Cray T3D.
The functionnalities of the T3D are simulated on a network of DEC
Alpha workstations.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

30 DEC Alpha AXP workstations running OSF/1 2.0
Cray T3D using an 8 PEs partition

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

I happen on some occasions to crash the kernel while using PVM/XPVM intensively
(i.e. about 300 PVM tasks scattered among 30 DEC stations, in trace mode.)
I haven't been able to recreate the situation on purpose, though.
PVM seems to be a very stable devellopment environment.

Suggestions:
------------
- The use of an buffer ADT in order to avoid side effects with a global sbuf
and
 global rbuf. (it proves to be a real annoyance and error prone with signals
and
 threads).

- A support for threads in a PVM task.

- A support for PVM in the programming language (a preprocessor or the like)
 which would, for instance, allow to send complex structures without requiring
 the pack/unpack sequence.

- It might already exist but a true Object-Oriented API to PVM could prove
 useful in the mid term (with objects duplication, object migration
facilities,
 ...), or some OO fusion of PVM and the ISIS library develloped by Ken Birman
 at Cornell for distributed computing.

- If a PVM micro kernel were implemented and the current PVM API one of many
 software layers running on top of it, the previous suggestion could be
 implemented as one of these software layers, and many more API could be
 tailored for different purposes.

Happy new Year !

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Xavier DEFAGO e-mail: defago@di.epfl.ch
EPFL-Switzerland www : http://diwww.epfl.ch/~defago/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Helmut Heller <Helmut.Heller@physik.uni-muenchen.de>

Are you using PVM today? YES

What are your application(s)? EGO, a molecular dynamics program

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
Workstation clusters (SUNs, NeXTs, SGIs, HPs, ALPHAs), CRAY T3D, IBM SP1,
Power Challenge, PARSYTEC powerExplorer

--
Servus, Helmut (DH0MAD) ______________NeXT-mail welcome_________________
FAX: +49-89-2394-4607 "Knowledge must be gathered and cannot be given"
heller@nirvana.imo.physik.uni-muenchen.de ZEN, one of BLAKES7
Phone: +49-89-2394-4565, -4562----------------------------------------------
Helmut Heller, Ludwig Maximilians University
Institute for Medical Optics, Theoretical Biophysics Group
Theresienstr. 37, 80333 Munich, GERMANY
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: crubille@ceremab.u-bordeaux.fr (Paul Crubille)

> What are your application(s)?
Actually educational purpose only.

> Are you using PVM today?
Yes or rather our students are.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
About % Sun.

Thanks for your work.

P. Crubille
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <juan@alpha1.dia.ucm.es>

-> Are you using PVM today?
Yes, I am actually using PVM vers. 3.3.4 and XPVM 1.0.3.

-> What are your applications?
I use PVM on simulations of Time Dependent Differential Equations and
Cellular Automatas applications.

-> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
We run PVM on SUN machines, HP 7300, DEC AXP 2000-300, DEC AXP 210 A500MP,
Convex 210 and, PC-386 running Linux.

Best regards.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Juan Carlos Fabero Jimenez
Dpto. Informatica y Automatica
Facultad de Ciencias Fisicas
Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain)
Telf. +34-1-3944384
E-Mail: <juan@alpha1.dia.ucm.es>
 <fabero@fis.ucm.es>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <IINFD@cc.uab.es>

We are interested in porting PVM to a multicomputer machine based on
Transputers from PARSYS.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Junxian Liu <jliu@nasoftwr.demon.co.uk>

> Are you using PVM today?
	Yes.

> What are your application(s)?
	We are writing a HPF to F90 mapper, which supports PVM as one of the
	message passing libraries.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
	Currently, we run PVM on networked Sun workstations.

Dr J Liu
NA Software Ltd
Liverpool L1 9DW
U.K.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Tom Archibald <twa@mathematics.edinburgh.ac.uk>

Are you using PVM today?

Yes

What are your application(s)?

Determining operating policies for reservoir networks
Managing fuel contract portfolios

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Up to 16 Sun workstations (SLC, ELC, Sparc2, Sparc5)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "C.E.Dean" <C.E.Dean@dl.ac.uk>

1. I have programs waiting to be modified to run under PVM, but pressure
 of other general sysadmin work has pushed the PVM work down in priority.

2. Four programs so far, related to Synchrotron Radiation research,
 i. Small Angle X-ray Simulation.
 ii. Calculation of the mass projection of a model structure.
 iii. Diffraction pattern simulation.
 iv. Background subtraction and Peak fitting of experimental diffraction
 patterns.

 "Computing with Parallel Virtual MAchines", C.E. Dean, R.C. Denny,
 P.C. Stephenson, G.J. Milne and E. Pantos,
 J. de Phys. III, Colloque C9, 445-448, November 1994.

3. I have been using a group of Silicon Graphics machines, Indy, Indigo2
 and 2-processor Challenge (Not using multi-processor PVM). Other machines
 to be included later are Sun (probably Solaris 2.4), HP and IBM w/stations.
 Potentially 10 or so machines could be used, but so far the programs have
 been tested on only 3 of 4 to demonstrate that it works and is worth doing.

--
Chris Dean, Email: C.E.Dean@Daresbury.ac.uk
DRAL,
Daresbury Laboratory,
Warrington, Tel : 01925 603353
WA4 4AD, Int : +44 1925 603353
U.K. Fax : 01925 603230

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: frutos@mac.cie.uva.es (Javier de Frutos)

Yes, I am using PVM today.

Mainly my own FORTRAN codes for numerical simulation of PDEs.

Up to now, a net of SUN SPARC stations.

				J. de Frutos
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Rainer Sinkwitz" <rainer.sinkwitz@chcrc.abb.ch>
>
> Are you using PVM today?
No more. (But I know of colleagues at ABB Power Generation using it
(responses
follow in parentheses"()")
>
> What are your application(s)?
Particle simulation (Computational fluid dynamics)
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
Sun, SGI, IBM RS6000 (Don't know)
>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
>
You might pass over the following to Vaidy Sunderam - he might remember me
from the heterogeneous network computing workshop in October 1991 in
Tallahassee.

I have finished my Ph.D. thesis in summer 1993 where I had been using PVM for

real-time interactive particle simulations using PVM 2.4.3. Since then I
never
worked in the area of cluster computation again. Since summer 1993 I am now
working for ABB (Asea Brown Boveri, which builds Power Plants, electrical
transmission, and railways) in the Swiss corporate research center working on

HCI and Control system engineering topics.

I am still interested in the cluster computing area - so please keep me on
your list. My email address is now sinkwitz@chcrc.abb.ch. Please remove
"sinkwitz@ifi.unizh.ch".

Best regards, Rainer

----
oooooo oooo Rainer Sinkwitz sinkwitz@chcrc.abb.ch
 $ $ $ " ABB Corporate Research VOICE +41-56-768303
 $"$$ """"$ CH-5405 Baden-Da"ttwil FAX +41-56-767365
o$o "$o $ooo" Switzerland

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: coupez@reykjavik.cma.fr (Thierry COUPEZ)

|> Are you using PVM today?

Yes

|> What are your application(s)?

Computational fluid and solid mechanic.
Forming process simulation by F.E. methods.
Meshing and remeshing.

|> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Cluster of etherneted workstation (RS6K).

SP1, SP2 ( 8 proc.)

Best wishes,

 Thierry Coupez
					e-mail	:	coupez@cemef.cma.fr
					fax : 	 	 (33) 93 65 43 04
					phone : 	 (33) 93 95 75 75
CEMEF, Ecole des Mines, BP 207, 06904 SOPHIA ANTIPOLIS CEDEX, France
____________________________________________________________________
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: fergal@erin1.ucd.ie (Fergal Mc Carthy)
>
>Are you using PVM today?

	Yes, though not at a very high priority at the moment.
>
>What are your application(s)?

	I am working with the Advanced Computational Research Group
in the Centre for Condensed Matter and Biomaterials, part of the
Chemistry department in University College Dublin.

	Our area of interest is the application of parallelism to
the simulation of polymers (primary interest), DNA, and proteins,
allowing complex simulations to be run in reasonable time.

	I myself have only just started recently, and as such have no
particular area from which to draw examples.

	However over the summer I was working with DEC in Galway, and
while there I worked on the development of a framework Resource
Manager for PVM, PVMRM. I hope to be able to continue working on
this application, to tidy up some of the code, improve it's
genericity, and improve the default scheduling algorithms. A
version of the RM has been used in Platform's LSF V2 release.

>
>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

	Here in the ACRG we have 3 DEC ALpha ws's, 4 SGI Iris Indigo's,
and a DECstation 5000 connected to a MasPar 1, all of which have
been used in conjunction, connected with PVM, on a number of
occaisions.

>
>Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

	Well I have already suggested a number of possible improvements
and corrections to Robert Manchek and Jim Pruyne while I was working
on the RM over the summer, but a quick summary would be:

	Using an RM - the console code won't recognise external RM's
				(this was up to 3.3.4... I haven't checked the latest
				 sources)
				 the unclean pvm_addhost() external RM interface:
				 it doesn't check the return value, just uses it as
				 a count of the number of tid's in msg, so if -1
				 is returned it attempts to unpack.

	The SM Protocol:
		no way to remove a host using the protocol
		no way to extract task status (running, msg wait, PVM wait)
			from the protocol
		no way to exchange state information with PVM or other RM's
			on startup or handoff, information such as the notify
			database.
		no way to modify state information such as host to htid
			mappings, and tid to host mappings which would be useful
			for the implementation of task and host migration.
			(Ok so this is probably a pipe dream!)

	Fergal

--
/ Fergal Mc Carthy <fergal@erin1.ucd.ie>, | Fergal Mc Carthy, \
| Advanced Computational Research Group, | 31 Fosterbrook, |
| Chemistry Department., U.C.D., | Stillorgan Road, |
| Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland. | Dublin 4, Ireland. |
\ Ph: +353-1-7062418 | Ph: +353-1-2601304 /

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Luc Timmermans <L.Timmermans@wbmt.tudelft.nl>
>
>Are you using PVM today?

 Yes, although I only just started using it.

>
>What are your application(s)?

 Large-eddy simulation of turbulent flow in channels or pipes.

>
>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>

 I did some preliminary work on a Cray T3D. In the near future I will
 also use a Convex SPP1000 and (perhaps) a IBM SP2.

=========================================================================
| Luc Timmermans | |
| Laboratory for | email: L.Timmermans@WbMt.TUDelft.NL |
| Aero and Hydrodynamics | phone: +31-15-78 2997 |
| Delft University of Technology | fax: +31-15-78 2947 |
| 2628 AL Delft The Netherlands | |
=========================================================================
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <gav@cam-ani.co.uk>

>> Are you using PVM today?
Yes.

>> What are your application(s)?
use of PVM to facilitate parallelized architecture for compute-intensive graphics (rendering etc); use of PVM as an
extended transport layer in a services-based IPC harness for integration into all our software.

>> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
HP735 workstations, pentium PCs, NeXTstations; up to a max of around 20 at peak in a hererogenous
configuraton. Will add some SGIs at some point.

PS - I'm impressed with PVM and so far we have experienced little difficulty using it.

Gavin Ferris
Senior Software Engineer
Cambridge Animation Systems
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: roy@dokir.eng.mcmaster.ca (roy underhill)
|
|Are you using PVM today?
	Yes
|
|What are your application(s)?
	Finite Element Methods
|
|How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
	4 SGI's and 16 suns

	Best wishes to you folk too!

Roy

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

W.R.C. Underhill, Ph.D.	 email: Trefoil@McMaster.CA
Principal, Trefoil Analysis voice: (905) 627-2786
30 Bertram Drive, fax: (905) 627-5930
Dundas, Ontario
CANADA L9H 4S9

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <m.wille@ic.ac.uk>

I am using PVM today

Computational fluid mechanics

Silicon Graphics Iris Indigo, Dec Alpha, Cray T3D
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Knut Eckstein <eckstein@isd.uni-stuttgart.de>

> Are you using PVM today?
Yes.

> What are your application(s)?
a) Parallel Solver for sparse systems of linear equations
b) ugp, parallel versions of the (U)nstructured (G)rids multigrid package

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
7 SGI Indy R4400/R4600
9 i486DX33 and DX2/66 PCs running Linux
1 PC running OS/2

--
Knut Eckstein GKKS, Universitaet Stuttgart
WORK: ISD, Pfaffenwaldring 27, 70569 Stuttgart, 0711/685-20 53, FRG
HOME: Forststrasse 132, 70193 Stuttgart, 0711/63 98 23, FRG
EMail: eckstein@isd.uni-stuttgart.de

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Samir Matar <Samir.Matar@brunel.ac.uk>
>
> Are you using PVM today?
YES
>
> What are your application(s)?
>
NUMERICAL LINEAR ALGEBRA
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
PARAMID with *8* Nodes
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <dennis.norris@mrc-apu.cam.ac.uk>

> Are you using PVM today?
>

No - But have used it to good effect and will again.

> What are your application(s)?
>

Simulation work in psychological modelling

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>

Max of 10, but typically 3. Sun Sparc 10s, Decstations, Nexts.

---

Dennis Norris
MRC Applied Psychology Unit
15 Chaucer Road
Cambridge CB2 2EF
UK

email dennis.norris@mrc-apu.cam.ac.uk
Phone +44 1223 355294 x760

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Alexander Rausch <Rausch@informatik.uni-stuttgart.de>

 > Are you using PVM today?
Yes, currently I am experimenting with pvm 3.3.6. I have problems with getting the exported environment variables via PVM_EXPORT if I spawn a process on a SUNMP architecture. No problem on SUN4, SUN4SOL2. Please fix this. I am programming a workaround in the meantime.

 > What are your application(s)?
I can address a couple of robots from each machine I like
 > How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
SUN4,SUN4SOL2,HPPA,SUNMP (in future LINUX).
about 10 machines
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: lquaresm@softpar.edinfor.pt (Luis Quaresma (Estagiario do TDTCI))

> Are you using PVM today?
>
 Yes, almost every day I work in this particular project, actualy.

> What are your application(s)?
>
 The project I am working on is an European colaboration project (ESPRITT) that
aims at developing a parallel C++ implementation over PVM (and MPI). As a test
to this new language (and as I work for the portuguese power company) we plan
to implement a parallel model of a power plant, and try to run it in real time.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
I have now the system up and running on a SUN sparc with Solaris and a HP, I
intend to add an IBM RISC 9000 as soon as I have my login there, and by the end
of the month a Parsytec parallel machine with 8 processing nodes.

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

I have some questions on PVM:

 1 - If I choose to receive a only messages with a certain tag or coming from a
certain tid, what happens to the messages that arrive in the meantime? Are they
lost or are they read later after a message with the desired tag arrives?

 2 - Is there a PVM mailing list? I know there is comp.parallel.pvm, but I
prefer mailing lists to newsgroups.

Now that sockets are available for windows and windows for workgroups is ready
to use, should it not be time for windows version of PVM? Here in EDP, and I
think that is the general case in most companies I know, the main computing
power are the hundreds of PCs around the building, while there are comparatively
few workstations available. Eventually we could install Linux on those PCs, but
somehow I don't think that the network manager would see that with good eyes :-)

						best regards
						Luis Quaresma
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Alexander Rausch <Rausch@informatik.uni-stuttgart.de>

 > Are you using PVM today?
Yes, currently I am experimenting with pvm 3.3.6. I have problems with getting the exported environment variables via PVM_EXPORT if I spawn a process on a SUNMP architecture. No problem on SUN4, SUN4SOL2. Please fix this. I am programming a workaround in the meantime.

 > What are your application(s)?
I can address a couple of robots from each machine I like
 > How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
SUN4,SUN4SOL2,HPPA,SUNMP (in future LINUX).
about 10 machines
 > Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
 > Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

 > Your help is much appreciated.

 > Best wishes, The PVM Project Team

 > ps. Previous survey results are available through World Wide Web
 > at http://www.epm.ornl.gov/pvm/

 > pps. We apologize if you received multiple copies of this
 > message. Our first attempt at sending the message uncovered a
 > bug in our mailer.

Yours
 Alexander

--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Willi Alexander Rausch
Universitaet Stuttgart
Institut fuer Parallele und Verteilte Hoechstleistungsrechner (IPVR)
Breitwiesenstrasse 20-22
D-70565 Stuttgart
Germany

Tel. : (0711) 7816 247
Fax : (0711) 7816 250
EMail: rausch@informatik.uni-stuttgart.de
talk : rausch@leonardo.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Claudio Gallo <fender@crs4.it>
>
I am currently using PVM and I have tried both master-and-slave
technique and SPMD. I work on numerical models using finite element and
implicit time discretizations on trasport equations.

I think it's working fine. Anyway I wonder if it were
possible to work using non-blocking receive. I'm not an expertise in this
matter, but I have found some problems when I use SPMD mode and I exchange
informations between among slaves: a non-blocking receive could be useful
I think, because it would avoid some bottlenecks.
Also, if it were possible to have a proper strategy and a set of subroutine
to properly measure CPU time, overhead, and latencys, well, it would be great!

Anyway, I greatly appreciate your work, 'cause PVM is enough easy to understand
and quite direct to use. I hope you'll continue this way.

Cheers

Claudio Gallo

______________________________________________________________________________

- CRS4 - Centre for Advanced Studies, Research and Development in Sardinia ---

------------- Environmental Modelling Group ----------------------------------
______________________________________________________________________________

Office:
 Via Nazario Sauro, 10
 09123 Cagliari, Italy
 Tel. (39 70) 2796 280
 Fax (39 70) 2796 301

e-mail: fender@crs4.it

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <cohenl@medsun.unige.ch>

Are you using PVM today?
 Yes, but we cannot link applications running on OS/2 and on Unix

What are your application(s)?
 Scientific data processing

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 PC-i486 under OS/2 2.1
 SPARC10 under Solaris 2

***********************************************************************
Emmanuel-S. Cohen-Laroque
Dept. of Physiology			Voice : +41-22-702-53-89
Medical School				Fax : +41-22-702.54.02
1, rue Michel Servet			E-mail: cohenl@medsun.unige.ch
CH-1211 Geneva 4
Swtizerland
***********************************************************************
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: jmg@iscte1.iscte.pt (Jose Guimaraes)

Dear Colleague,

 > Are you using PVM today?
I have installed pvm and I'm now getting familiar with it.
I'm planning to start very shortly an application development using pvm.

 > What are your application(s)?
My application will be a simulator of several scenarious where
multiple accesses to multiple information providers are needed.

 > How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
At present it is installed in the network with access via at least 12
SUN4 machines. Shortly will be installed in 2 Silicon Graphics
machines (Indy and Indigo 2).

Hope this information can help.

Best regards,
Jose

----------------------------------------------
Research Center: ADETTI -- Associacao para o Desenvolvimento
 das Telecomunicacoes e Tecnicas de Informatica

University: ISCTE -- Instituto Superior de Ciencias
 do Trabalho e Empresa

ADETTI / ISCTE
Av. das Forcas Armadas Phone: +351.1.7935000 Ext.: 256
Edificio ISCTE Fax: +351.1.7935300
1600 LISBOA
PORTUGAL Email: jmg@iscte.pt
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: gwk@crmunich0.cray.com (Georg-Wilhelm Koltermann)
>
> Are you using PVM today?

	Several people at this site are using PVM on a regular,
	frequent basis.

>
> What are your application(s)?

	They are porting locally developed applications to
	a multiple/parallel machine model.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

	Workstations, Cray mainframes, Cray MPP (T3D).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <am3a532@rrz.uni-hamburg.de>

Are you using PVM today? YES.

What are your application(s)? HARMONIC BALANCE
(DETERMINATION OF PERIODIC SOLUTIONS OF NONLINEAR DE)
FOR SIMULATION OF ANALOG CIRCUITS.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
10 RS6000, 10 SUN4/75

Carsten Bergemann
bergemann@math.uni-hamburg.de

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: lothar@ki6.informatik.uni-hamburg.de (Lothar Hotz)

	Are you using PVM today?
Yes

	What are your application(s)?
Search Tools for AI. Development of a programming language for AI on
distributed machines.

	How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

12 SUN4
4 SUN4SOL2

	Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

Native implementation for the CM-5 would be useful for me.

lothar

 Lothar Hotz
FB Informatik
Universitaet Hamburg
Vogt-Koelln-Str. 30
D-22527 Hamburg
Germany
Tel.: +49 (40) 54715 605 Fax: +49 (40) 54715 572
E-mail: lothar@ki6.informatik.uni-hamburg.de
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: angelt@ac.upc.es (Angel Toribio)

> Are you using PVM today?

	YES
>
> What are your application(s)?

	Parallelization of a package to manage Binary Decision Diagrams.
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

	SUN, DEC-ALPHA, CONVEX

	If you need more details please contact me and I'll be pleased to
	answer.

	Best regards.

--
Angel Toribio o o o
Dep. d'Arquitectura de Computadors o o o
Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya o o o Keep our planet healthy:
Gran Capita s/n, Mod. D6 reduce, reuse and recycle
08071 Barcelona SPAIN U P C
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: bernini@cluster.cise.it (Cristiano Bernini)

> Are you using PVM today?
>

Yes.

> What are your application(s)?
>

CFD : combustion + compressible Navier-Stokes + Finite Volume

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
A cluster of 5 IBM RS6000s

Best Regards
Cristiano Bernini

*********************************************************
* *
* Cristiano Bernini *
* *
* Affiliation: CISE SpA *
* Divisione Sistemi e Modelli *
* Sezione Matematica Applicata *
* Office_Address: via Reggio Emilia n. 39 *
* 20090 Segrate, Milano (Italia) *
* Office_Phone: +39 2 21 67 22 40 - fax: 26 20 *
* e-mail: berni203@alliant.cise.it *
* *
*********************************************************

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jose Damian Lopez <jdamian@cain.puertos.es>

Hello,

 I recieved your email and these are may answer by order:

 1.- Yes, I am working with pvm.
 2.- My applications are about parallel-distributed aplications on
 fluids dynamics and ocean models.
 3.- My programs run on Convex,HP and linux-486

See you..

--
Madrid, 09 de January de 1995, 11 : 31
*****************************************
* Jose Damian Lopez Maldonado *
* Clima Maritimo-Puertos del Estado *
* c/Avda. del Partenon 10 *
* 28042 Madrid *
* Phn: 34 1 524 5500 ext 1627 *
* 34 1 524 5568 *
* Fax: 34 1 524 5506 *
* 34 1 524 5502 *
* *
* e-mail:jdamian@puertos.es *
* http://www.puertos.es *
* *
*****************************************
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: matt@macsch.com (Matt Jackson)

> Are you using PVM today?

Yes

> What are your application(s)?

finite-element analysis

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

up to 8 simultaneously

Sun Sparcstation 1+, 2
HP 715
SGI Indigo
IBM RS 6000
Cray YMP-EL
IBM SP-1

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: lad@sigmoide.fct.unl.pt (Luis Augusto Duarte)

I am using today PVM to study distributed systems in my university.
My university is NEW UNIVERSITY OF LISBON an we use it in our programs.
The PVM is installed in a ethernet network of pc-computers and others computers.
I think that PVM is not reliable enough to program with it quickly.
Personaly, I found one bug. It was a variable used several times by pvm calls that
losted its value. But I am a student, so I do not knowledge enough to be critic of PVM.
But, if you want, I can sen you the program with the bug.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Walter.Lioen@cwi.nl

Dear PVM team,

> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

> What are your application(s)?

We, the Initial Value Problem group of Peter van der Houwen of the
numerical mathematics department of CWI, Amsterdam are working on
parallel ODE/DAE solvers in a project called `Parallel Codes for
Circuit Analysis and Control Engineering'.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

At present we focus on an implementation on a cluster of locally
available workstations. Our typical PVM is homogeneous and consists
of Silicon Graphics Indys (100 MHz R4000SC) coupled by an ethernet.
We could also use FDDI or even ATM, but we try to get a speed-up
using fast machines on a relatively slow network.

On a Parsytec GCel/512 we use Homogeneous PVM 1.0$\alpha$
(based on public domain PVM 3.2.6).

On an IBM 9076 SP1 we use IBM AIX PVMe Version 1 Release 2
(based on public domain PVM 3.2(.5)).

Finally, I tried SGIMP and I even played 1 hour with PVM on a
Cray T3D (at present I do not have access to such a machine).

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

I would love to have full Fortran support e.g.

	- pvmfstart_pvmd

and

	- pvmfgettmask
	- pvmfsettmask
	- the functionality of pvmtev.h
	 (Could parameters and statement functions
	 using MIL-STD-1753 bit field manipulation intrinsic functions
	 do the trick? OK, not portable.
	 Using External functions instead of macros? Performance does
	 not seem to be the issue here.)

The last category would be for creating a decent xpvm-aware spmd
executable.

A minor point perhaps: the possibility to do a quiet pvm_mytid.
This is for a PVM executable that does its own pvm_start_pvmd,
if required. I do not want to hassle users by bogus warnings:

	libpvm [pid1213]: /tmp/pvmd.232: No such file or directory
	libpvm [pid1213]: /tmp/pvmd.232: No such file or directory
	libpvm [pid1213]: /tmp/pvmd.232: No such file or directory
	libpvm [pid1213]: pvm_mytid(): Can't contact local daemon

if the `local daemon' is started by the executable itself.

> Your help is much appreciated.

Thanks for all your nice work.

> Best wishes,
> The PVM Project Team

Kind regards,
 __
 /o \ Walter M. Lioen
 (_ \ CWI, P.O. Box 94079, 1090 GB Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
 / /\ \ e-mail: walter@cwi.nl phone: +31 20 5924101
 /_/ \_\ fax: +31 20 5924199 telex: 12571 mactr nl
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "David Ewing" <ewingd@aero.gla.ac.uk>

Yes, I am using PVM today.

My application is rotorcraft simulation.

8 Silicon Graphics Indy workstations.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Rob Davies <Rob.Davies@cm.cf.ac.uk>

Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

What are your application(s)?

I teach others to use PVM (plus parallel computing in general).
Applications I have have most to do with: genetic algorithms,
numerical modeling (particle code), fine grained matrix solvers,
Computational Number Theory.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

16 SUN workstations max.
nCUBE2 (using a version to allow progs written in PVM to compile/run).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: P.J.Parsons@computer-science.hull.ac.uk (Peter Parsons)
>
>Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

>What are your application(s)?

Numerical calculations and graphics apps.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Sun Sparc - up to 16
SG Indy - up to 4
Transtech Paramid - up to 8 i860 nodes

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Peter Parsons - Department of Computer Science, University of Hull
E-Mail P.J.Parsons@dcs.hull.ac.uk Voice: 44 1482 465016
URL http://web.dcs.hull.ac.uk/~pjp/pjp.html Fax: 44 1482 466666
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Ralph Caruso <rxc@nrc.gov>

We have been trying to use pvm to link two different
thermal-hydraulic computer codes together to perform
nuclear reactor transient and accident analyses. The
codes that we are trying to link are RELAP5 and CONTAIN.

ACtually, the work has been going on at the Idaho National
Engineering Laboratory and the Brookhaven National Laboratory
under contract to us, for about two years. The link portion
seems to work well, but we have been experiencing problems
with the physics of the two codes, as well as time-step
consistency. We believe that pvm could be very useful
to us, and we would also like to link some of out thermal-
hydraulics codes to our neutron physics codes.

Ralph Caruso
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Soeren Frandsen <srf@obs.aau.dk>

Dear Project Team

>
> Are you using PVM today?
yes
>
> What are your application(s)?
Data reduction of multiple data set.
A main job despatches data sets to a set of clients, which
perform the reduction and returns the results to the main
program, which collects them and stores them.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
On SGI indy'es and Power Challenge. On CONVEX 3840 and
on an 8 processor SPP machine.

>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
One of the main problems has been to measure performance.
Some guidelines for doing that would be valuable.

Best wishes

Soeren Frandsen

Institute for Physics and Astronomy
Aarhus University
Universitetsparken
DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark tlph: +45 89423612 Fax: +45 86120740
Email: srf@obs.aau.dk or sfrandsen@solar.stanford.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Uli Bartling <Ulrich.Bartling@gmd.de>

Are you using PVM today?

'Today' in the literally sense: NO
'Today' in the sense of 'still using it regularly': YES

What are your application(s)?
Genetic Algorithm

	- We place different (sub-)populations on different processors.
	 Every once in a while individuals migrate from one population
	 to another one thus exchanging information.

	- Currently, for some time consuming fitness functions we are
	 implementing a distributed evaluation of that fitness function
	 in that for every individual one processor performs the evaluation.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
Mainly SUN workstations. Since last week, we have access to an EXPLORER (?)
system via a SUN workstation as front end. EXPLORER is a parallel computer
based on the Power PC chip for computation and transputers for communication.
It's a Parsytec computer.

Hope that helps. If you are interested in more details, please let me know.

--

**************************************************************************
 /\___/\ Ulrich Bartling
 / \ c/o Gesellschaft fuer Mathematik und Datenverarbeitung (GMD)
 | * * | German National Research Center for Computer Science (GMD)
 \ ^ / Schloss Birlinghoven, P.O.Box 1316, D-53754 St.Augustin
 \_~^~_/ Email: ulrich.bartling@gmd.de Tel.: + 2241 14-2466

**************************************************************************
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: mgs@rio.cos.ufrj.br (Marcio Goncalves da Silva)

Dear Colleagues,
	here are the answers with wich I can contribute to the improvement of PVM.
>Are you using PVM today?
Yes.

>What are your application(s)?
I am writing a little part of a program with the student Andre' Belllieny (bellieny@rio.cos.ufrj.br). This software is a tool for evaluating overhead brought by the memory consistency model "release consistency". Each PVM task simulates a hardware architecture that implements a consistency protocol.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
We have used only SUN Sparcstations2 and have had some problems mounting the virtual machines. Andre' Bellieny has more specific information on this matter.

>Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
I will probably write more parts of the program or even other ones, and then I will probably have real suggestions to give.

	Best Wishes,
	Marcio Goncalves da Silva
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Geordie +1865 740 011 <ayoung@vax.ox.ac.uk>

Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

What are your application(s)?

Genetic likelihoods - ie. recursive computations of probabilities involving
heavy use of CPU with only occasional file accesses. Run times of serial
versions on DEC ALphas between 1 second and months.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

DEC Alpha, DEC Ultrix and SUN Solaris systems. Maximum configuration of
6 machines simultaneously.

Main suggestion:

[1] better debugging facilities.

[2] a note about system overheads in the documentation - ie. something that
would allow us to assess the trade-off between sending (i) lots of small data
packets on demand or (ii) occasional large ones and hoping the scheduling
is roughly optimal.

	Alan Y.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Ulrich Albrecht" <ALBRECHT@aps.rwth-aachen.de>

> Are you using PVM today?
Yes.

> What are your application(s)?

I'm working on a distributed robot-simulator, running a viewer-modul
on a Personal Iris, a dynamic-simulation on a Sparc 10 and a
pathplanning modul on another Sparc 10. Other modules are planned.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
Personal Iris (irix 4.0.5), Sparc 10 (SunOS 5.2), i80386 running
LINUX, i80386 running IBM OS/2 (using Jan Ftacnik's port).
Most of the development is done on a single LINUX-Machine or a single
Iris, though, to avoid blocking other users.

Thanks a lot for your work,

Ulrich Albrecht

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: pvangool@dutlsb3.lr.tudelft.nl (Paul van Gool)

Are you using PVM today?

Yes, I am.

What are your application(s)?

Simulation of aircraft and helicopters. Usual multiple machines allows me
to run 'real-time' on my workstation. This speeds up my research.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

2 x HP9000/735
1 x SGI Iris Indigo
2 x Sun Sparc 10

Keep up the good work. PVM really help me out when I want to have some fast
results of my simulation.

Paul
--
When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible,
he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he
is very probably wrong.
 -- Arthur C. Clarke
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| internet : P.vanGool@LR.TUDelft.NL Faculty of Aerospace Engineering |
| compuserve : 100407,3063 Delft University of Technology |
| phone : +31-15-785312 Kluyverweg 1, 2629 HS Delft |
| fax : +31-15-781822 The Netherlands |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: H C Pumphrey <hcp@meteorology.edinburgh.ac.uk>
>
> Are you using PVM today?

I use it often and might use it this afternoon, I haven't decided yet.

> What are your application(s)?

Nonlinear retrievals of water vapour concentration in the stratosphere
using measurements from the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) on the Upper
Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS).

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
All Sun machines, Sparcstations I, IPX, 5, 10 running SunOS and Solaris.

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

(1) A history mechanism on the console. I hate pressing the UP arrow and
getting ^[[A instead of the previous command.

(2) I often get pvm system errors when I start up or try to add new
machines. Usually I find that a pvm daemon has started on the slave
machine and failed to communicate this to the master. If I kill the daemon
by hand, I can then add the slave. This fault is not because I have some
text echoed by my .bashrc file.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: David White <dwhite@mrj.com>

> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

> What are your application(s)?

We are using PVM as a basic message-passing facility for a large image
processing project, with multiple executables.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

We run it on a network of Suns (Sparcs mainly, one Sun 4) with a CM-5

Hope this helps.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: R Abdullah <R.Abdullah@lut.ac.uk>
>
> Are you using PVM today?
Yes.
>
> What are your application(s)?
>
Solving large systems of linear equations.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
Dec-Alphas (only 2 at the moment)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Following message from P.J. Spence (jules@rrpmg.demon.co.uk) in response to PVM
survey request received by me, D R Crooke, presumably as a NA-Net subscriber as
41179@ibmmail.com.

Julian's response follows:

I am using PVM

My application is FORGE3 - a 3D Finite Element forging simulation
(rigid-viscoplastic - i.e. incompressible fluid formulation) using a direct
solver (currently). My work has involved testing the solver (in isolation) on
Silicon Graphics machines; concentrating on using our Challenge machine as the
shared memory makes communications fast enough for speed up. The way forward is
to integrate the solver into the program and distribute the data and sparse
matrix.

I have found that the shared memory PVM on SiG tends to fall over, without
warning, when other users (e.g. Patran3) vie for it - would it be possible for
pvm progs to wait for such contention to finish (and not crash) : also to clean
up the ipcs resources after themselves. The use of the tmp directory for pvm is
irritating as (when it fills up) other progs have problems - perhaps an option
when running pvm that enabled specification of its workspace?
Finally when running parallel programs is it possible easily to run something
like dbx on slave processes or is there some other way of de-bugging these
codes?

Generally pvm is OK the things I have mentioned are more to do with putting
programs into production (and the hoary problem of de-bugging).

Hope I have given you enough information - please contact me if you wish to
discuss my use of pvm.

Julian Spence

============================================================================
Whilst this information is given in good faith, based on the latest
information available to Rolls-Royce plc, no warranty or representation is
given concerning such information, which must not be taken as establishing
any contractual or other commitment binding upon Rolls-Royce plc, or any
of its subsidiary or associated companies.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Y.F.Hu" <Y.F.Hu@dl.ac.uk>

> Are you using PVM today? Yes
>
> What are your application(s)? CFD, Numerical Analysis
> Content-Length: 256
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
> 2. Intel i860 and Cray T3D.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Alexandra Wagner <wagner@informatik.uni-freiburg.de>

Hi everyone,

>
> Dear Colleague,
> In order to improve PVM we are trying to understand how
> people are using the system. Your feedback is important.
> Could you take a moment to answer three questions.

Sure

>
> Are you using PVM today?
Yes, I am.

>
> What are your application(s)?

I am working on a parallel version of heuristic state-space
search strategies like the A*-algorithm (--> arrtificial intelligence).

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

I am using a LAN network of SUN4 SPARC workstations.

>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
I can't think of anything right now but if I do so I will email you.

--

	Bye Alexandra

----------------------------------------------------------------
Alexandra Wagner (wagner@informatik.uni-freiburg.de)
Institut fuer Informatik
Universitaet Freiburg
Germany
----------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Darren P Rodohan <Darren.Rodohan@brunel.ac.uk>

Hi!

Are you using PVM today?
	Yes, I have been using PVM for about a year.

What are your application(s)?

We have written a distributed implementation of the Finite Difference Time
Domain (FDTD) method (3 dimensional) for electromagnetic applications. The
majority of the parallel computation part has been completed. The code was
written in C and used the SPMD computation model with overlapping regions
at the boundaries.

We are also considering using PVM in our practical exercises for our parallel
computing courses.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

We have been using a combination of 8 SUN iPX, iPC and classic workstations.
We intend to also use a network of DEC alphas with FDDI in the near future.

Comments and Suggestions?

The FDTD project is being funded by the Higher Education Funding Councils of
England, Scotland and Wales as part of a larger project to exploit spare
capacity on workstation networks. There are about 8 other projects that are
currently using PVM. I believe that the HPC centre at Southampton are
currently constructing a WWW page with details of all ofthe projects.

We are currently using version 2.4.2 having read several reports that indicated
that the performance was superior to version 3.x.

Keep up the good work.

Best Wishes
	Darren.

*****************************************************************
*	Dr. Darren Rodohan					*
*	Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Electronics		*
*	Brunel University					*
*	Uxbridge, Middx UB8 3PH					*
*	England							*
*	Tel. +44 (895) 274000 ext. 2840				*
*	Fax. +44 (895) 258728					*
*****************************************************************
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Joachim.Hansson@studorg.luth.se (Joakim Hansson)
>
>Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

>What are your application(s)?

I am working with pvm in order to construct a software which calculate the
difference in speckle patterns between two images (speckle photography).
The goal is to get a system which can show tensions and small movements
solid object. How a fluids behaves and similar things.

The calculations is rather, how should I put it? Heavy?
The work is a part of my exam and I have not developed the program from
scratch. The major part of the calculations has been imported from a
program running under a DOS based system. But I, and my companion, has
ported the program to UNIX and delveloped it to a massive parallel working
program. Of course the language in use has been C (GNU c to be exact). We
have been able to cut the time spent computing from 3 hours (66 mh 486) to
about 15 minutes. In some cases even better results have been obtained.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

In the largest installation I have used 25 sun stations of various kinds.
I have also tested installations with mixed environment (HP and sun).
SOme problems arised when using this large installation. I have not yet
been able to deduce if it is my fault, the network or bugs in the used
software (The operating systems is for example different).

>Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
>Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

Well give me some time... ;-)

>Your help is much appreciated.
>
>Best wishes,
>The PVM Project Team
>
>ps. Previous survey results are available through World Wide Web at
> http://www.epm.ornl.gov/pvm/

=============================================================================
!tkl-armuo@studorg.luth.se ! !
!frazze@ludd.luth.se ! Blow your brain, smoke gunpowder! !
!p92-jhn@sm.luth.se ! !
!============================================================================

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Giacomo Fiumara <fiumara@vulcano.unime.it>

1.	yes

2.	development of a parallel code for Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics
	parallel codes for integral theories of the liquid state
	brownian dynamics
 classical molecular dynamics

3.	my codes run on a cluster consisting of 6 IBM RISC 6000/mod. 580
 as well as on a heterogeneous parallel machine consisting of 4 HP/PA
 9000 mod 700 computers, 2 IBM 6000 mod. 550 and 320 and 2 DEC MIPS.

Best regards,

Giacomo Fiumara

(fiumara@vulcano.unime.it)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: vincent@kheops.cray.com (Vincent LE BARAZER)

>>>
>>> Are you using PVM today?
>>>

	yes.
>>>
>>> What are your application(s)?
>>>
	MPP applications.

>>>
>>> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>>>
	Benchmarks on Cray's T3D and C90/J90.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: mvklink@WI.LeidenUniv.NL (M.H.W.vanKlink)

Hello, here are my answers.

> Are you using PVM today?
Yes, version 3.2.6

> What are your application(s)?
I'm building a parallel raytracer

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
17 SGI Indy
3 HP 9000
15 Sun Sparc

Greetings,

Michel van Klink
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Song Koh <swk@seymour.mlb.semi.harris.com>
>
> Are you using PVM today?

No not at this time. I have several application which use PVM but
they have not been used for six months. I am planning to resurrect
them in the next several months.

> What are your application(s)?

Modelling semiconductor devices.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Three. DEC RISC, HP 9000/380, Sun Sparc

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Song Koh			Harris Semiconductor
swk@mlb.semi.harris.com		MS 62-022
Voice: (407)-724-7085		P. O Box 883 (US mail)
Fax: (407)-729-4960		Palm Bay Road (UPS)
				Melbourne, FL 32902-0883
------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Adam K L WONG <aklwong@csd.hku.hk>
>
> Are you using PVM today?

	It had been used as a tool for a postgraduate course (Parallel
Computing) in our department.

> What are your application(s)?

	Differnet assignment were set by using pvm as a tool in solving
computational tasks aiming for speedup of execution time. eg. Fast Matrix
Multiplier.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
	The machines we used for the building up of the PVM were mostly
workstations runing Unix.

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

	This software package is easy to use; with good documentation;
BUT with NOT enough application examples !

cheers...
--
 :------------------------------------/\_/\
 | Department of Computer Science ( )
 | University of Hong Kong \ ; /
 |------------------------------------/ \
 | Name : (Adam) Kai Leung Wong / \
 | Internet : aklwong@sunmp.hku.hk ( )
 |___________________________________\_____/
 (
 \
 )
 /
From: <dmpa@callisto.eci-esyst.com>

I am responding to your survey request.

I am not really using pvm today. I recently got a copy of the program
installed it and ran pvm_test. However, I do not know as yet how to
actually use the program (1 st time user). I knew of the program due
to my advisor at college.

My applications will hopefully be to run some method of moments type
code.

The number of machines I will be using is as yet undetermined. (to be determined
by the amount of time it requires to finish my runs in a reasonable amount of time.)
Most likely 2-6 machines will be used. I have many more at my diposal, almost all
of which will be sun sparcs (from ipx to 20).

I do not have any suggestions at this time.

I hope this is useful.

David Perry

==============================================================
D.M.Perry, Engineer	MS/43		|
E-Systems, ECI Division			|
1501 72nd Street North			|
St. Pete, Florida 33710		|
--------------------------------------------------------------
E-mail	: dmpa@eci-esyst.com	| Phone	: (813)381-2000 X3468
==============================================================
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Mark Stiles <stiles@epg.nist.gov>

3) I use PVM on a cluster of of 8 HP Risc workstations (HPPA). I
plan to use it on an IBM SP1 or SP2 in the near future.

2) I have been using PVM as a "baby sitting" program, that is, keeping
the eight workstations busy running essentially serial programs.
These programs have been quantum Monte Carlo simulations for single
electron charging effects, and solution of continuum differential
equations for sutdying growth on surfaces. I am now developing a
program that will do more fine grained parallelism. The new program
will entail doing three dimensional integrations, where the integrand
is expensive to compute, but can be computed on a single node.

1) Yes, am using PVM today.

--
Mark Stiles
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Metrology B206
Gaithersburg, MD 20899
Phone: (301) 975-3745
Fax: (301) 926-2746
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <S.McLoone@ee.qub.ac.uk>

1. I do not use PVM regularly.

2. The implementation of parallel training algorithms for feedforward neural networks.

3. Sun IPC and a SPARC 2 work stations - 8 machines.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Feairheller, Phil" <pfeairhell@wcupa.edu>

Are you using PVM today?

Yes, I have set up PVM on the CompSci departments Sun stations and on a few
Linux boxes, and the department is planning on developing a class on
Parallelism, clustering, etc.

What are your application(s)?

We have not developed any applications yet, but as I mentioned, we will be
using it for teaching.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

We have 9 Sun SparcClassics, 1 Sun Sparc10 and two IBM 486's running Linux.
 We have attempted to run PVM on 6 DEC stations, but are have trouble
getting rsh to interoperate between Linux and Ultrix. Any suggestions would
be appreciated!

Hope this helps
 -Philip
pfeairheller@wcupa.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
COMPANY
From: zukas@nixie.mitre.org (Tony Zukas)

Are you using PVM today?

Yes

What are your application(s)?

Using PVM to manage and distribute a queueing model
that estimates airport delays in the National Airspace
System (NAS).

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Currently using a network of 3 to 20 Sun Sparc machines
(2's, 10's). Possibility for moving to CM5.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: joaquin@nemesis.etsimo.uniovi.es (Joaquin Ordieres Mere)
>
> Are you using PVM today?
YES
>
> What are your application(s)?
STRUCTURAL DESIGN
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
SGI 440
SGI 4D/35
SGI 4D/20
HP 9000/715
HP 9000/720
HP 9000/720
HP 9000/712
>
--
________________________________________________________________________________
Joaquin B. Ordieres Mere		e-mail: joaquin@nemesis.etsimo.uniovi.es
Manager of S.I.G.		 	phone: (34-8) 5104272
Professor				Fax: (34-8) 5104242
University of Oviedo
Spain
________________________________________________________________________________
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: cung van-dat capran <Van-Dat.Cung@inria.fr>

>Are you using PVM today?

Yes, pvm 3.3.5. with xpvm 1.0.3.

>What are your application(s)?

Parallel and distributed algorithms such as Branch-and-Bound,
sorting, minimum spawning tree, ... We also use PVM for courses in
our university.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Sun 3/4
HPPA
Linux/PC
KSR1
IBM SP1

Best wishes for continuing
Van-Dat.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: hjenter@stress.er.usgs.gov (Harry Jenter )
>
> Are you using PVM today?

No, but we are considering using it in the future.
>
> What are your application(s)?

three-dimensional time-dependent coastal ocean circulation modelng,
including flow field prediction and particle tracking.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

We have experimented with O(10) machines from 3 or 4 manufacturers.
We have access to O(100) Data General Aviion workstations here.

--
Harry L. Jenter hjenter@stress.er.usgs.gov
U.S. Geological Survey (703) 648-5916 | FAX (703) 648-5484
Mailstop 430, National Center "The lottery is just a tax on
Reston, Virginia 22092 people who are bad at math."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: visser@chem.vu.nl (Olivier Visser)

> Are you using PVM today?
Yes

> What are your application(s)?
Quantum Chemistry Code (the Amsterdam Density Functional program)

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
Currently, only the IBM SP1 and a cluster of RS6000 workstations,
but we will be running on a number of different platforms in the
near future.

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

In general pvm is working very well for our application, and we
have little problems using it.

We have a few problems with portablity:

- the startup code of vendors-implementation works different from
the public domain code
- when using a virtual machine consisting of for example CRAY and
RS6K machines, a problem arises in communicating integer arrays
since CRAY uses 64 bit integers, and ibm uses 32 bit integers.
The first problem is that INTEGER8 is not supported, and the
second problem is that the integers need to be converted (we would
like to use some general type INTEGER, depending on the machine,
and let pvm manage the required conversions).

Wish list:

Portable startup code (also useable for pvm-e etc)
A simple solution for the 'integer problem'
A fast implementation of the reduce operation
A fast multicast operation (use the network multicast option)
A simple manner to destroy the output from the kids

Best wishes for 1995,

Olivier Visser, Theoretical Chemistry,
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "John R. Crowe" <crowej@eecs.umich.edu>

> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

> What are your application(s)?

My research on the signal processing side of ultrasound imaging
requires that I run compute intensive 2D and 3D correlations. I
use PVM to break the jobs over 10-30 machines here at U of Michigan.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

The max number of machines I have used at once is probably 30. I've
used HP 7xx's, Sparc 2, 10 and 20's and IBM RS 6000's. I'm pretty
sure that I've had runs that used all three at once. Definitly runs with
Sun and HP's.

> Comments

I've made the move from PVM 3.2 to PVM 3.3, and I'm contemplating MPI.
Do you folks support a version of MPI?

Thanks,
John Crowe
crowej@eecs.umich.edu

From: Stefan Hahndel <hahndel@informatik.tu-muenchen.de>

Hello,

>Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

>What are your application(s)?

Currently I am writing my doctoral thesis about distributed
planning algorithms in multi-agent systems. Especially I am
working on the problem how to distribute some typical tasks in
manufacturing planning and control. Within this work I developed
a negotiation-based distributed planning method, that I myself implemented in
a simulation environement running on one workstation. When I heard about
PVM I gave some of me students the task to do a second test implementation
using PVM in order to test whether this approach is useful in practice.
We are now using this first prototype for experiments with this
planning system and do further improvements.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

My student used up to 100 HP workstations (HPPA architecture), but mostly
we are using smaller configurations around 40 machines, because they are
also used by other users ;)
But I also tried it on a network containing different architectures
(SUN,HPPA and HP300).

>Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

It's a great system. I also did a presentation of our planning system
on a small conference (MAAMAW'94) using a foreign network consisting
of 20 SUN Sparcs without problems. This showed me how portable distributed
software.
Only the debugging of the distributed implementations is sometimes not so
easy and it would be nice when there are proper debugging tools available.
One of my students tried xpvm (if I remember correctly), but was not able to
run it. But perhaps there is already a good tool available and I do not know
about it ?

Best wishes and a happy new year,

Stefan hahndel

Office: Technische Universitaet Muenchen Phone: +49-89-48095-210
	Institut fuer Informatik	 Fax: +49-89-48095-203
	Orleansstr.34			 Telex: 3457 tumue d
	D-81667 Muenchen, Germany 	 Room: 236
PGP public key available on request !	 IRC: Hast
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Matt Miller <mjm@creare.com>
>
> Are you using PVM today?
>
Yes.

> What are your application(s)?
>
Computational fluid dynamics (numerical simulation).

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
Sun SPARC (2), HP700 (3), HP382 (1).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Andy.Phippen" <andyph@school-of-computing.plymouth.ac.uk>

Hello

With reference to the survey message you sent out, the application I am currently developing is a parallel genetic algorithm, on a network of 3 Sun single processor SPARCS and one multiprocessing SPARC. I am using pvm for the inter population commuication at present, but may develop the uses as the application itself develops.

Hope this is of help

Cheers

Andy
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <M.Richardson@pac.soton.ac.uk>

 pvm-survey> Are you using PVM today?
Not immediately. But soon I will be porting an application from IBM SP1 EUI
to PVM 3.3 for portability issues.

 pvm-survey> What are your application(s)?
An indusrial collaborators' CFD code. Other members of the team
are working with molecular dynamics and others work with structural
finite elements.

 pvm-survey> How many and what kind of machines have you used with
 pvm-survey> PVM?
IBM RS6000 cluster (4 running PVM 2) before SP1 (8 nodes)
Sun Sparc IPX (run on 4 although 10 available)
Silicon Graphics Power series shared memory machine (4 nodes)

 pvm-survey> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are
 pvm-survey> welcome. Please email the information to
 pvm-survey> pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
I will be interested to see if version 3.3 has improved performance,
although it is unlikely that I shall be able to make the results public.

Mark Richardson /| /| /|
Parallel Applications Centre / | / | / |
2 Venture Road | | | | | |
Chilworth Phone: +44 (0)703 760834 | | | | | |
Southampton Fax: +44 (0)703 760833 | | | | | |
S016 7NP E-Mail: mr@pac.soton.ac.uk | | | | | |
United Kingdom | / | / | /
 |/ |/ |/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: tbodine@utig.ig.utexas.edu (Tom Bodine)

> Are you using PVM today?

Yes, but I am only a system manager.
I haven't written anything but test programs for PVM.

> What are your application(s)?
Geophysical structural seismic processing.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
> We run PVM on 5 Sun Sparc 10 and 2 Sparc 20's.
 Most of them run Solaris 1, a few run Solaris 2.

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
 Some one who uses PVM on a daily basis should be tasked with maintaining
 the FAQ.

 I fear upgrading PVM since the installation, and the last upgrade were so
 painful. The installation procedures need improvement.

 Question: Is the shared memory option for Solaris multi-cpu PVM working yet.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: S.Miller@rus.uni-stuttgart.de (Shannon Miller)
>
> Are you using PVM today?

I personally do not use it. I sometimes obtain it and install it
for the benefit of users here of our Intel Paragon system. In that
sense, I'm more of an administrator.

We log every invocation of pvmd3 and the log shows that 21 different
Paragon users at this site have called pvmd3 a total of 617 times
between Feb 09 17:26:55 MET 1994 and Mon Jan 09 14:15:35 MET 1995.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

--Shannon

+--------------------------------------+
| Mr. Shannon Miller, Customer Support |
| Intel Scalable Systems Division +------------------------------+
| Regionales Rechenzentrum der | smiller@rus.uni-stuttgart.de |
| Universitaet Stuttgart | or smiller@ssd.intel.com |
| Allmandring 30 (* Letters Only) | Tel: +49-711-678-8738 |
| 70550 Stuttgart, Germany | FAX: +49-711-678-8363 |
+--------------------------------------+------------------------------+
| * Freight: Allmandring 3A, 70569 Stuttgart 80, Germany |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <MATTERN@ARIEL.LERC.NASA.GOV>

>Could you take a moment to answer three questions.
>Are you using PVM today?

No.

>What are your application(s)?

Aerospace, propulsion system dynamics.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Looking into a Harris NightHawk/Sun Sparc10/Dec Vax 3100 combo.

>Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

Currently looking at using PVM.

Duane Mattern (mattern@ariel.lerc.nasa.gov.us)	(216)433-8186 (office)
NYMA @ NASA Lewis Research Center, M/S 77-1	(216)433-8643 (FAX)
21000 Brookpark Road, Cleveland, OH 44135 USA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jacek Kitowski <kito@hpc.icsr.agh.edu.pl>

Hello,

Please, find some remarks on PVM:

1. we use PVM every day for at least 2 years for research and educational
 purposes. We use also other environments like Express, Linda, p4, NX2.

2. PVM is used for dovelopment of parallel (distributed) algorithms for
 molecular simulation (molecular dynamics, lattice gas, some trials
 with CFD, parallel FEM, distributed graphics)

3. SUN SPARCstation2, SLC,IPX, 470, 10
 IBM RS/6000 320,520H, 550.....
 HP9000/700 720, 712/80
 CONVEX C3220, C3820
 experiments were done also with TMC CM5

4. Suggestions:
 - global operations similar to Express excombine() or NX2 gdsum(), gopf()
 - more information available via XPVM, like in ParaGprah for example.

Sincerely yours

------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Jacek Kitowski
Institute of Computer Science | email: kito@uci.agh.edu.pl
The Stanislaw Staszic | tel/fax: +48 (12) 33-94-06
University of Mining and Metallurgy
al. Mickiewicza 30,
30-059 Cracow/Poland
------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <hanson@cis.ufl.edu>

I'm not using PVM now. Indirectly, I'll be using it
sometime this year. We'll be using the Paradise parallel
database system from Univ. of Wisconsin, which will use PVM.
We're using a network of Sun's as a parallel machine to
start with.

Eric Hanson
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: gray@ctron.com (Eric Gray)

>> Are you using PVM today?

Yes although mostly as an academic pursuit.

>> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

We have used PVM on IRIX 4.x Indigo and Indie systems, Sun OS Sparcstations
and Ultrix DEC workstations.

>> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
>> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

We have been able to use PVM in three different parallel programming models;
Hierarchical (Client-Agent-Server), Pipe-Line and Data Parallel. In each of
these approaches, PVM presents little difficulty in use (design and coding).
While PVM is versatile and generally easy to use, there is room for improved
debugging capabilities. It would be preferable that changes or improvements
to PVM take into account the variety of parallel programming paradigms that
may be in use.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Piero Lanucara <lanucara@siros.caspur.it>

Hy,
my answer to your questions are:

Are you using PVM today?
>Yes, PVM 3.3

What are your application(s)?
>My actual interest is concerning the Flame Front Propagation problem.
>Myself (with M. FALCONE and C. TRUINI, Dip. Matematica Univ. di Roma
>"La Sapienza") have presented at the FIRST EUROPEAN PVM USERS' GROUP MEETING
>a talk titled:

>Parallel algorithms using PVM for the evolution of interfaces

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>We have tested and run this application on our cluster of 8 DEC Alpha 3000/500
>FDDI interconnected via DEC Gigaswitch.

Best regards,

			Piero Lanucara, CASPUR

E-Mail			lanucara@caspur.it

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: djw@gypsy.stetson.edu (Dr. Donna Williams)

We have used PVM as a tool in a course on Parallel Computing. It is not
currently being used, but will again in the near future.

We used it on a network of 9 Sun4 workstations

The biggest problem was the /tmp files left behind when a program crashed
or was interrupted. Overall we found it an excellent system.

Donna Williams
Associate Professor
Stetson University
DeLand, FL 32720
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Anselmo Lastra <lastra@cs.unc.edu>

>
> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

> What are your application(s)?

A simulator of a parallel graphics computer that we are building. We use a
PVM-based system as a software development platform.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>

Just a few machines at a time (4 or so). Mostly HPs. Some RS6000s.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Mike Griffin" <griffin@goomba.dt.navy.mil>

Are you using PVM today?

No. I plan to use it starting this summer.

What are your application(s)?

I'll be doing computational fluid dynamics (3-D Incompressible
Navier-Stokes).

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

None yet. I will be using about seven or eight SGI Indigo2's and
Indy's and one Crimson.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <ry59@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de>
>
> Are you using PVM today?

 Yes
>
> What are your application(s)?

 I don't know, what!
 I'm programming a mathematical Problem (Genetik and Evolutionary Algorithm
 for solving linear Problems)
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

 Up to 15 machines of IBM RS6000
>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
>
Searching for Errorrs at a client is not easy

	 MfG Thomas W"alde

	 Computing Center of University of Karlsruhe
	 Am Zirkel 2
	 76131 Karlsruhe
	 Tel: +49 721 608-4736
	 Fax: +49 721 32550
	 E-Mail: waelde@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <thompson@mathstat.ms.runet.edu>

Are you using PVM today?

 Yes.

What are your application(s)?

 I am using it in conjunction with Krylov method of
 lines solutions of partial differential equations.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

 I use it with a network of Sun workstations (1-25).

Skip Thompson
Radford University
Radford, Virginia 24142

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: rrallo@etse.urv.es (Robert Rallo)

>Are you using PVM today?
 YES
>What are your application(s)?
 Neural Networks and Pattern recognition
>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 We use a heterogeneous cluster of five UNIX machines: 2 RS6K (560 &
220), 1 HP9000 / 730
 1 SUN SparcStation 1 SUN 630MP

>Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
>Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

Yours sincerelly,

 "Salut (a tots ...) i llarga vida a la Republica de l'ETSE"
********************************************************************
 Robert Rallo
 Escola Tecnica Superior d'Enginyeria (ETSE).
 Universitat de Tarragona (URV).
********************************************************************
 Carretera de Salou s/n.
 43006 TARRAGONA (SPAIN)

 Tel. 34 (9)77 559686
 Fax. 34 (9)77 559710
 E-Mail: rrallo@etse.urv.es
 URL: http://www.etse.urv.es/rrallo/Intro.html
********************************************************************

From: Dr Yuyan Wang <cesyw@bath.ac.uk>

Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

What are your application(s)?

Computational Fluid Dynamics.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Four stations which are SUN20,2xSUN4 and SGI-indigo

---------------------------------------------------------------------
| Dr. Yuyan Wang | Tel: + 44 225 826826-5593 |
| School of Chemical Engineering | Fax: + 44 225 826894 |
| University of Bath | E-mail: Y.Wang@uk.ac.bath |
| Claverton Down | WWW: |
| Bath BA2 7AY UK | http://www.bath.ac.uk/~cesyw |
---------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Hoffman, Peter x3357" <HOFFMAN@hap.arnold.af.mil>

We use PVM for a major application involving computational fluid dynamics
(CFD). We usua;;lly work with four workstations, but sometimes as many as
sixteen, from SGI, SUN, HP, IBM, and DEC. We often put a Cray in the loop
as well.

Peter Hoffman

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: dlander@idss.nwa.com (David Anderson)
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Not at the present time.

> What are your application(s)?

Varies, but the original intent was to manage data "blobs" of
unstructured information. That project hit the bit bucket late in 1994
and we're not sure when it might be resurrected.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Our PVM test had six systems, all RS/6000 AIX Version 3.2.3.

--
David L. Anderson | Voice: 612.726.0775 | Northwest Airlines, Inc.
dlander@idss.nwa.com | Fax: 612.726.0521 | 5101 Northwest Drive, Dept J3750
 | | St. Paul, MN 55111-3034
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: edlg@server01.lncc.br (Eduardo Lucio M. Garcia)

 com prazer acuso recebimento dos seminarios de Matematica Computacional. estava
 de ferias e nao pude comparecer.
	desejo continuar recebendo os avisos via e-mail.
	atenciosamente,
	eduardo garcia.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: hetu@simmibm4.imi.nrc.ca (Jean-Francois Hetu)

Are you using PVM today?
No

What are your application(s)?
CFD applied to material processing
(Navier-Stokes , solidification, phase-change, Mould filling, hyperbolic
transport equations, ... )

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

2 IBM 590
1 IBM 550
3 IBM 320h
1 HP 735
1 Sun Sparcstation 10 model 41
1 SGI (Pers. Iris 4D35...)
2 DEC Alpha
1 DEC station 5000

>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jean-Francois Hetu Institut des materiaux industriels
Email: Jean-Francois.Hetu@nrc.ca	 CNRC / NRC
Tel : (514) 641-5082 75, de Mortagne, Boucherville, QC
Fax : (514) 641-5104 Canada
 J4B 6Y4
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Florian Fuchs <fuchsf@informatik.tu-muenchen.de>

My answers to your questions:

> Are you using PVM today?
No, but I used it the last two years.

> What are your application(s)?
It's a Multi-Agent System that I wrote for usage in a production
planning system.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
About 100 HP700 machines.

-----------------------
 Florian Fuchs

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Enno Cramer <CRM@wzl-wm1.wzl.rwth-aachen.de>

Dear PVM Project Team,

in respect of your survey I ll give you some information
of the project we are using pvm with.

On our Institution, the Lehrstuhl fuer Werkzeugmaschinen
at the WZL (Werkzeugmaschinenlaboratorium) of the University
in Aachen we are using and developing programms for the
finite-element calculation and optimization (shape & topology) of
mechanical structures (especially of tooling machines).

Beside comercial software for FEM calculation we are using the
self-developed programsystem STRATHOS with is specialized in
the structural and thermal optimization of composites.

The main goal of our research project "Parallelization of FEM-
Optimization" (founded by the German research fund DFG) is to
speed up calculation time of STRATHOS. We first investigated
domain-decomposition techniques. To speed up the performance
of a single FEM-Analysis we implemented a multi-frontal
FEM-equitation solver in STRATHOS using pvm as interface.
Because restructuring the knots with the nested-disection
method would cost too much time, we are using only two solver
proceses in connection with up to eight proceses doing the
calculation of the element matrices in parallel.

Our hardware consists of a workstationcluster of 10 RS/6000
worstations. Using all 10 workstation, STRATHOS runs nearly
3 times as fast as the sequentiell version, although the other
machines are busy running a CAD-System (CAEDS). We hope to
improve performance by replacing the file exchange of
the various modules by communication over pvm, thus kind of
pipelining the optimization process.

Our overall experience with pvm ist quite good, although there are
some drawbacks your probably already aware of:
- I do not know a way of doing or controlling either dynamic or
static load balancing
- There is no way to controll the amount of data that has been
sendet, but not yet received (-> buffer overflow)
- It is imposible to measure performance, because the blocking
receive operation does not increment the user time counter. So it is
not possible to tell how long an operation blocked.

I would like to have a monitor tool (which may of cource cost performance)
to analyse the overall behavior of the progam system. This is a thing
that I cannot realize, because of lack in time and knowledge. If you
got to know about such a tool through your survey, please let me
know.

Bye, Enno H. Cramer

CRM@WZL-WM!.WZL.RWTH-AACHEN.DE

Lehrstuhl fuer Werkzeugmaschinen
am Laboratorium fuer Werkzeugmaschinen und Betriebslehre (WZL)
der RWTH Aachen

Steinbachstr 53B, 52074 Aachen, Germany

Tel.: +49 241 807449 Fax.: +49 241 8888 293
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Johan Meijdam <johan@pa.twi.tudelft.nl>

> Are you using PVM today?

Yes, I do

>
> What are your application(s)?
>

Building a task graph interface without using a parallel computer

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>

HP Apollo 735
SUN Sparc Classic

Best wishes,
	Johan Meijdam.
	johan@pa.twi.tudelft.nl
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: xw@pip.fpms.ac.be (Xiao Wei)

Dear members of The PVM Project Team:

 First sincerely thank you for providing such
a useful parallel utility to us.

 Then I answer those three qlestions listed
in your letter:

 1: Of course, I am using PVM today. I will
try to use it better in future.

 2: My research is in Artificial Neural Networks,
I have built my parallel simulation for ANN with PVM.

 3: Now in my laboratory, we have a SUN Sparc server
670mp that has two processors, a SUN ELC workstation
and a Alpha machine which has 16 processors. These machines
link each other with a ethernet. I built my simulation
in this environment.

 In my work, sometimes I was bothered by how to getting
accurate transmission time between two projects run on both
same and different machines. Maybe I have not found good
solution to solve it. Can you give me some good suggestion?

 Gest regards,

 WEI Xiao

------------------------------------------------------
Mr. WEI Xiao
Address: Rue des Tuileries 4,
tel:0032-65-374056
Email:xw@pip.fpms.ac.be

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: torque@world.std.com (Torque)

We have not yet used PVM. We're thinking of porting our implementation of
Linda to run on top of PVM. Hope this is helpful to you.

Iain Bason
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: tobita@marc.co.jp (Akio Tobita)

Dear PVM staff:
> In order to improve PVM we are trying to understand how
> people are using the system. Your feedback is important.
> Could you take a moment to answer three questions.

The Answer is yes!

> Are you using PVM today?

I'm affraid not. That was moths ago.
But other colleagues are using that of HardWare vender's version.

> What are your application(s)?

MARC and Mentat
Those are FEM code and its pre/post processor.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

I used to use 5 HP9K/700 and 3 IBM RS6K.
Today's user is using one Multiprocessor platform.

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

I want to ask a question in return. What is happening to the standardization
procedure. I guess PVM is a de facto standard right now.

Is it possible for PVM to adopt the idea of Virtual Shared Memory, which shares
Virtual Data Segment throughout the network? And is it worth doing?

Best Regards,

--

Akio Tobita
Systems Group

 M M Nippon MARC Co., LTD.
 MMM MMM 4F Daiichi-Seimei Bld., 2-7-1 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku
MM MMMM MM Tokyo, 163-07 Japan.
 WWW WWW Tel. +81-3-3345-0181 Fax. +81-3-3345-1529
 W W E-mail. tobita@marc.co.jp

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: gock@masc39.rice.edu (Mark Steven Gockenbach)
>
> Are you using PVM today?
>

 Yes

> What are your application(s)?
>

 Seismic velocity inversion, with applications to hydrocarbon
 exploration.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>

 4 IBM RS6000's

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: David Mackay <mackay@intel2.CCS.ORNL.GOV>
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

>
> What are your application(s)?

Benchmark code (computational chemistry) written to use pvm.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

One machine, Intel Paragon.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: bala ramakrishnan <balasu@sabre.larc.nasa.gov>

Dear SColleagues,

 Yes , I am currently involved in developing distributed computing version of a Navier Stokes flow solver (TLNS3DMB) currently. The application is being run on SGI and SUN workstations.

	The project is almost at a completion stage.

 Thats all for now.

balasu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Charles.Fineman@Eng.Sun.COM (Charlie Fineman)

I am using PVM. Although I am quite familiar with it, in fact, I have no
direct experience in using it.

	Charlie Fineman
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <ALS@STC10.CTD.ORNL.GOV>

I am maintaining a large ground water model on the xps5, xps35, and rx
machines at ORNL. I don't run this model myself, other than to test it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: alien@essex.ac.uk (Adrian Clark)

> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

> What are your application(s)?

We are researching into image processing on parallel and distributed
systems. In particular, we are currently developing an image
processing software package that is capable of serial or parallel use,
with PVM being one of the underlying routes to parallelism. This
software also uses Tcl/Tk, and we have put together something rather
like the PVM console as an extension verb to Tcl; someone out there
might be interested.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with
> PVM?

We have used:

 ~25 SUN4
 5 SGI5
 2 HPPA
 1 ALPHA
 1 LINUX (development platform only; no networked computation)

I had to nobble the `arch' script to make it support my flavour
(Slackware) of Linux.

..Adrian

--
 Dr Adrian F Clark <alien@essex.ac.uk>
 PHONE: (+44) 206-872432 (direct) FAX: (+44) 206-872900
 Dept ESE, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, Essex, C04 3SQ, UK.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: mpapakhi@browndwarf.ucs.indiana.edu (Mary Papakhian)
>
> Are you using PVM today?
Yes.
>
> What are your application(s)?
In users' home directories.
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
One cluster of 15 IBM RS/6000s, models 580 and 370.
>
--

 Mary Papakhian
 STARRS System Administrator
 University Computing Services
 Indiana University
 (812) 855-2597
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Xiao Xu <xiaoxu@aero.gla.ac.uk>

Dear Colleague,

I use PVM every day recently. We have a cluster composed of 8 Silicon Graphics
(6 x R4400 & 2 x R4600).
The application is solving 3-D Navier-Stokes equations. The explicit algorithm
has been successful, but the implicit algorithm is still in testing. Since
the only 8 processors available, the cluster is only used for coding the
implicit algorithm. The Cray T3D is also available, which uses PVM, for the
implicit algorithm.

There are two things that I am not happy.
1. The PVM can not load the jobs according to the loading of the processors,
 i.e. lack of load banlance.
2. The job will be stopped if one processor have problem.
 e.g. someone reboot one of the computer, the job will dead.

Regards!

Dr. Xiao Xu
Dept. of Aerospace Eng.
Univ. of Glasgow
Glasgow G12 8QQ
U.K.
January 9, 1995
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <bruce@bock.cfg.cornell.edu>

We are not actively using PVM today, but we plan to use it in the future.

The application is a 3D linear elastic boundary element code. Both the
integrations and the solver can be parallelized, but we do not have an
out-of-core parallel solver, thus we are not actively using it.

We have it running on 4 DEC ALPHA's and 1 DEC Station 5000.

Regards,
Bruce Carter
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Ricky E Sward <rsward@afit.af.mil>
>
> Are you using PVM today?

No. I used it for a class here at the Air Force Institute of Technology
last quarter.

>
> What are your application(s)?

In the class, we used PVM to implement mutual exclusion using several
different algorithms. THis was part of the class project to learn more
about the ways distributed operating systems can implement mutual
exclusion. It was interesting.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

We used PVM with up to 10 separate SparcStation 20's. They are
all part of a larger network of SUN workstations available here
at AFIT.

>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
>

We used XPVM in an attempt to visualize what was happening on the
virtual machine. XPVM was too slow to actually use for debugging or
executing test runs. If you could speed up XPVM it would be an
excellent tool.

PVM as a tool was quite straightforward to use and an excellent
distributed o.s. utility.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: zhangq2@burntumber.psc.edu (Qiming Zhang)

Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

What are your application(s)?

Materials Science codes.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Cray C90 and Cray T3D.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Raphael Finkel <raphael@cs.engr.uky.edu>

application: distributed tree search
How many / what kind of machines: Haven't gotten underway yet, but will be
on the order of 20 sparc-5 machines.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: seeley@cloud.plh.af.mil (Guy Seeley)

not using pvm today
no applications
0 machines used

I am actively considering using pvm for IR scene modeling.
If we decide to move into a parallel mode of operation pvm
will be our #1 candidate

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Fred Kulack <kulack@VNET.IBM.COM>

Excerpts from mail: 6-Jan-95 PVM survey pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu (720)

> Are you using PVM today?

Yes

> What are your application(s)?

I'm currently using PVM as strictly an educational and experimental
platform for a small project in a Distributed Systems class

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

about 8 machines
4 RS/6000 w/AIX 3.2.5.7, 4 Intel 486 w/Linux.

Fred Kulack Team OS/2 is for EVERYONE! - Bill Gates. ;-)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Open Systems Enablement (Internal : kulack@rchland )
IBM Rochester, MN (Internet : kulack@vnet.ibm.com )
ph: 507.253.5982 (Tie line : 553.5982 )
WWW Personal Page (Personal Page http://www.rchland.ibm.com/~kulack/)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: ellis@hstc.necsyl.com (Dennis R. Ellis)
Could you take a moment to answer three questions.

** Sure, no problem.

Are you using PVM today?

** Yes.

What are your application(s)?

** Several benchmarks that we are looking at have PVM implementations.
** Some utilities for our supercomputer for which we want real-time
** displays.
** As a message passing learning tool.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

** NEC SX-3 supercomputer and SGI Personal IRIS.

Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

** 64-bit integer support would be *VERY* helpful.

+-----------------------+--------------------------+--------------------------+
| Dennis R. Ellis | HNSX Supercomputers Inc. |(HNSX Supercomputers is a |
| Sr. Benchmark Analyst | 4800 Research Forest Dr. | subsidiary of NEC Corp.) |
| Ellis@hstc.necsyl.com | The Woodlands, TX 77381 |All the normal stuff about|
| (713) 364-0034 | FAX: (713) 292-8818 | opinions being mine... |
+-----------------------+--------------------------+--------------------------+

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <horoi@theo06>

|> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

|> What are your application(s)?

Scientific: cluster molecular dynamics, eigenvaule of large symmetric matrices...

|> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

DEC 5000 and ALPHA; maximum 6.

|> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

Every thing is fine. Probably a more user-friendly version of xpvm will
increase the productivity.

Sicerely,

 Mihai Horoi
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "John S. Zelek" <zelek@cim.mcgill.ca>
>
> Are you using PVM today?
yes

>
> What are your application(s)?
mobile robot navigation. The perceptual and control processing is dispersed
over many processors.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
SUN and SGI.

>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
shared memory.

--
John S. Zelek Centre for Intelligent Machines (CIM)
 McGill University, Montreal tel: (514)-483-0780
e-mail: zelek@mcrcim.mcgill.edu
www: http://www.cim.mcgill.ca/~zelek/Home.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: jspeery@sandia.gov (James S. Peery)
>
> Are you using PVM today?

yes - V.3.3

>
> What are your application(s)?
>

Strong shock wave physics and continuum mechanics

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
SGI, SUN4, HP, SUNMP

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
>

We will be moving to MPI as it becomes available. We enjoyed PVM, but it
appears to us that MPI will be something to standardize on.

Thanks,

-James
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 _/_/_/ _/ _/ _/ SANDIA NATIONAL LABORATORIES _/_/_/
 _/ _/_/ _/ _/ Department 1431 _/_/
 _/_/_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ Albuquerque, NM 87185-0819 _/_/_/_/_/_/
 / _/ _/_/ _/ tel: 505 845 9336 _/ _/_/ _/
_/_/_/ _/ _/ _/_/_/_/ fax: 505 844 0918 _/ _/_/ _/
 _/_/_/
 Computational Physics Research
 and Development Department James S. Peery - jspeery@sandia.gov
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: gwm@hayworth.LANL.GOV (Gregg W. McKinney)

PVM Project Team,

Yes we are using PVM extensively and have upgraded to PVM 3.3.5.

It has become an integral part of MCNP 4A and newer versions. We are
in the process of incorporating load-balancing with this capability.
Hundreds of MCNP users have taken advantage of this on virtually all
Unix platforms, including (to my knowledge) Suns, HPs, IBM RS/6000,
Cray (UNICOS), Cray T3D, Meiko, CM-5, SGI.

To date the most workstations I have performed timing studies on is
16 (on Suns and IBM RS/6000s). I have also done some studies on the
Cray T3D with 128 processors.

I have found the PVM software to be one of the most reliable utilities
I've used. Continue the good work!

Gregg W. McKinney
gwm@lanl.gov
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: douglas@math.purdue.edu (Jim Douglas)

1. Today: we are in the process of changing workstations to a collection
 of IBM PPC's. We will install PVM within a few days and begin using it.

2. Applications: Nonlinear pde's in 2D or 3D and time.

3. Previous use: A small family of Sparcs and RS6000's. Imbalance between
 processors reuced effectiveness. Also, on a 16 processor IBM SP1, where
 it was very useful.

Jim Douglas, Jr.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: sanz@lace01.lerc.nasa.gov (Jose Sanz)

 Yes, I use PVM now on a routine manner.

 My application is Aerodynamic Inverse Design and Analysis for Full Engine.

 I use PVM to run this application on two CRAY C90s. My host is an IBM

 RS6K-590.

 I use PVMe on an IBM SP2-160 nodes at NASA Ames.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <HMillwater@swri.edu>

Yes I am using PVM today.

I am implementing a parallel version of our probabilistic analysis code.
Presently, I have implemented Monte Carlo simulations on our workstation
network. I plan to implement other probabilisitic methods in parallel soon.

I am running exclusively on an HP workstation network (HP 9000/700 series). I
have used up to 10 workstations.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Chris Chase S1A <chase@retro.jhuapl.edu>

Survey> Are you using PVM today?

No. I used it for a particular problem in 1993. I will be returning
to that problem in the near future (early 1995).

Survey> What are your application(s)?

Optimization in the setting of parameter estimation. I use PVM to
partition the calculation of the error function. The particular
parameter estimation problems that I have been working on deal with
data inversion or model matching in remote sensing applications of the
earth's upper atmosphere and the magnetosphere.

Survey> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Machine types: SGI Iris4d, HP9000s700 Numbers: I have used PVM using
combinations of 8 of these machines at one time.

Survey> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
Survey> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

I will be able to make more informed comments later this year after
returning to my application that uses PVM.

Chris Chase
===============================
Bldg 24-E188
The Applied Physics Laboratory
The Johns Hopkins University
Laurel, MD 20723-6099
(301)953-6000 x8529
chris.chase@jhuapl.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: rme@sticky.rockefeller.edu

Are you using PVM today?
 Yes.

What are your application(s)?
 Computing the Karhunen-Loeve transform for online analysis of
 optical imaging experiments.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 Up to 12 SGI and Sun workstations.

Richard Everson.
--
Knight Laboratory for Biophysics, Telephone: +1 212 327 8384
Rockefeller University,				 Fax: +1 212 327 8123
1230 York Avenue,
NY, NY, 10021-6399. Email: rme@camelot.rockefeller.edu

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: jyluo@chevron.com (Yi Luo)

1. I am not using it today
2. may applications was in seismic data processing.
3. Sun, IBM rs6000, and DEC.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <Peter_A_Dinda@GS62.SP.CS.CMU.EDU>

Are you using PVM today?

yes.

What are your application(s)?

Various. We use PVM as one of several communication back-ends for a
run-time system for an HPF-like compiler. We have users that do air
quality modeling, image processing, etc.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

DEC Alphas connected with E-net, FDDI, Gigaswitch
Sun 4s, e-net
Dec PMAX, e-net
Intel Paragon

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: rkufrin@ncsa.uiuc.edu (Rick Kufrin)

>
> Are you using PVM today?
>

Yes. Literally :^)

> What are your application(s)?
>

Two unrelated applications: a molecular dynamics program which
is written in a parallel superset of Fortran 77, and a parallel
classifier algorithm (a decision rule generator) written in C.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>

Seven different platforms:

Sun, Hewlett-Packard, Silicon Graphics workstations. Cray Y-MP
supercomputer. Silicon Graphics Challenge supercomputer. Convex
Exemplar (Convex PVM). TMC CM-5 MPP.

Rick Kufrin
Mathematics and Computer Science Group
National Center for Supercomputing Applications
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: miner@msssrv
X-Mts: smtp

I used PVM this fall as part of a Parallel Programming course.

I used PVM on SGI, Solaris, and LINUX machines. With the SGIs
I used up to 8 machines at once.

-----------------------------------------------------------
Jon Miner
miner@rapnet.sanders.lockheed.com (My real job)
jwm@cs.unh.edu (Graduate work)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: frye@conx.bu.edu (Roger Frye)

 Reply-to: pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu
 Are you using PVM today?
Yes.
 What are your application(s)?
1) client/compute-server communication.
2) (intended) portable message passing for migrating various CMMD codes
from CM-5 to other parallel supercomputers.
 How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
Have used SGI5,CM5 as a client/server pair.
Intend to use CM5, SGI, IBM and CRAY multiprocessing.
 Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
I was surprised by the poor performance I got by coding a client/server
system so that the server blindly sent messages and the client read them
when ready. I got much better performance by having the clinet request
each message. Perhaps I just need a better model of PVM internals in order
to understand this behavior, but it would be nice if the simpler protocol
were more efficient.

-Roger Frye (617) 353-8277
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: harkin@fubar.cs.montana.edu (Gary Harkin)
>
> Are you using PVM today?
Yes.
>
> What are your application(s)?
Mostly classroom projects. However, we are runnin OSF/2 on an Alpha, so
it uses PVM and therefore, we are using it also.
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
DEC Alpha, HP 9000 Series, DEC Mips, SGI
>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: rbarrett@wrangler.LANL.GOV (Richard Barrett)

>Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

>What are your application(s)?

General support of PVM throughout LANL. Developing example code.
Developing utility routines.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

IBM rs6000, Suns, HP, DEC, SGI.

Cray t3d, CM-5, Intel iPSC

Probably others.

>Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

You gotta love it.

Regards,

Richard

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: grit@CS.ColoState.EDU (Dale Grit)
>
> Are you using PVM today?

I used it in a course on parallel programming that I taught during
the Fall 94 semester. The students wrote one program (Gauss-Jordan
Elimination).

>
> What are your application(s)?

See above.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

We installed PVM on a set of 8 HP400 workstations.

>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

Installation was more painful than we had hoped. I had been using
PVM on a set of Suns. I had hoped to be able to set up the HP
environment also so I could see what types of issues the students
would face. But I gave up trying to set up my system to also
allow the use of PVM across the HPs. We have a global shared file system
across all department machines. When I tried to install the HP
version, my Sun version died.

It seemed difficult to get the environment variables set up correctly,
and the specification of where parts of PVM had to reside in the file
system seemed restrictive.

The students kept their sense of humor reasonably well. A couple
energetic ones started working on their assignments early and provided
valuable hints for helping the rest of the students to get their
environments/directories set up properly.

Dale Grit
Computer Science Dept.
Colorado State Univ.
Ft. Collins, CO 80523
grit@cs.colostate.edu

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Luis Gerardo de la Fraga <fraga@b12sg1.cnb.uam.es>

Are you using PVM today?
	Yes, I am.

What are your application(s)?
	Three-dimensional recontruction from electron
microscopy specimens.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
	I'm using a reduced version of Oak ridge PVM for one parallel
machine PARAMID (from Transtech Parallel Systems Corp).

	Cheers

	Luis Gerardo de la Fraga
 Centro Nacional de Biotecnologia. 28049 Madrid

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: jvz@cyberia.cfdrc.com (Jeroen van der Zijp)
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

> What are your application(s)?

Visual Computing Environment for distributed CFD Applications

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Mostly SGI's; other machines are being used, such as DEC/Alpha,
IBM, HP.

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

> Your help is much appreciated.
>
> Best wishes,
> The PVM Project Team
>

PVM is a very good effort; keep up the good work. It is
very much appreciated.

				Jeroen van der Zijp

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: steveb@norwalk.cray.com (Steve Buonincontri)

Our customers want to PVM across J90s without any load balancing problems etc.
Also, our customers want a shared memory version of PVM on the PVP CRI
machines.

My personal opinion about the PVM on the PVP machines is that is a potential
customer coming off a cluster of workstations tries it, he will probably not
buy the PVP from CRI. When I was using it, I could not spawn from the pvm
console and I had to start the group server myself. THis is a CRI problem
and should not be telling this to you.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Willem.Vermin@sara.nl (Willem Vermin)

>
> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.
>
> What are your application(s)?
 For educational use: to learn other people to use pvm.
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 SP1 (8 nodes), rs6000-cluster(3 nodes), CRAY C90 (4 processors)
 SGI Onyx, SGI Indy's (8 stations), and Linux
>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

 For first-time users it is sometimes a time-consuming job to get pvm
 running. A checklist would be helpfull.

 Greetings, Willem Vermin willem.vermin@sara.nl

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: sanmarti@inrets.fr (Jorge San Martin)

Currently,i.e we have not used PVM today.

We have installed PVM on our SUN stations (Sparc 1 and 2).
We hope to install PVM also on a PC using GNU-LINUX.

We would like to create some applications which should eventually
run on IBM (SP1 with 8 nodes) machines for the study of mechanics
of continuous media using the finite element method.

We currently have a project (thesis for a French Diplome) on the
parellisation of a numerical solver using sparse matrices.
The numerical programme was created by the French Highways and Roads
Department for aid in modellising problems in the civil engineering domain.

Best wishes and good luck for the future to the PVM Project Team.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Christian.Schaller@lrz-muenchen.de (Christian Schaller)
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Yes, I'm currently preparing an introductory course for pvm
at our cite (Leibniz Computing Center)

>
> What are your application(s)?

Mainly test examples and some tutorials, but I'm going to port
my waveform relaxation code to pvm.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Very different: I've installed pvm on a cluster of suns a cluster of hps
on our cray y-mp and on our parallel computer ksr.

Best regards

Christian Schaller

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Christian Schaller email: schaller@lrz-muenchen.de
Leibniz-Rechenzentrum phone: +49-89-2105-8771
Barer Str. 21 fax: +49-89-2809460
80333 Munich
Germany
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Dave Remien <dave@mars>
Reply-To: dave@hyperk.com
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Not at the moment. Not doing any programming or applications stuff; more
like network compatability junk for a while.

>
> What are your application(s)?
>

Primary PVM candidate is MCNP.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>

HP9000/[78]00, Sun, SGI

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
>

I think you're doing a great job; PVM is a valuable tool. Keep up the
good work, and I hope that DOE can see it's way straight to keeping you
funded.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Mary E. (Beth) Allen" <ballen@uahcs2.cs.uah.edu>

On Fri, 6 Jan 1995 pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu wrote:
> Are you using PVM today?
	Yes.

>
> What are your application(s)?
>
	Very simple, client/server groups. I am
 just learning PVM.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

	I have only used PVM on our network of about a
 dozen SUN4s.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Guillaume Colin de Verdiere" <coling@acl.lanl.gov>

On Jan 6, 7:51pm, pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu wrote:
> Are you using PVM today?
>
	Yes, I'm using pvm 3.3 and the T3D version on a daily basis.

> What are your application(s)?
>
	My application is a parallel volume renderer which can run
either on a T3D or workstations.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
	I mainly use Silicon Graphics (Indy, Indigo 2 , Power Chalenge
with IRIX 5.2; Onyx 2xR8000 with IRIX 6) and the CRAY T3D. I happened
to use SUN4 with SunOS 4.

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

	I tried to use PVM 3.3 with XPVM on SGIMP but, as Jim Kohl told
me, instrumentation of SGIMP is still to be done. I wish I could have
it for the next release.

	I'd greatly appreciate to have the same version of PVM on
workstation *AND* the CRAY T3D. I do know that's not easy since CRAY
wants to have it's own improved version but that would help us a lot.
Maybe some common programming efforts could solve this ?

>-- End of excerpt from pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu

 Happy new year to all the team.

--
			Guillaume Colin de Verdiere
			CEA CEL-V
			94195 Villeneuve St Georges Cedex
			FRANCE
			email: coling@limeil.cea.fr

	 or: coling@acl.lanl.gov until August 15 1995

			thanks to DGA/DRET/DS (France)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: fsfrick@bones.lerc.nasa.gov (David Fricker)
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

> What are your application(s)?

CFD code development.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

IBM RS/6000; SGI 4D/320, 4D/340, 4D/480, Indigo, Indigo2, Onyx; Sun SPARC2,
SPARC10; HP 9000s730, 9000s750.
Maximum number in one application: 18.

--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
David Fricker voice: 216-433-5960
NASA Lewis Research Center email: fricker@lerc.nasa.gov
 I don't speak for any government (and hope I never will)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Of the seven dwarves, only Dopey had a shaven face. This should tell us
something about the custom of shaving." -- Tom Robbins, <Skinny Legs and All>

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Yokokawa Mitsuo <yokokawa@TC.Cornell.EDU>

 | Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

 | What are your application(s)?

A numerical simulation on the Rayleigh-Benard convection by
using the direct simulation Monte Carlo method

 | How many and what kind of machines have you used withPVM?

I am using PVM with up to 32 processors on IBM SP2 at
Cornell Theory Center.

Mitsuo YOKOKAWA
Visiting Scientist at Cornell Theory Center
on leave from Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute
E-mail: yokokawa@sugar.tokai.jaeri.go.jp
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: mcqueen@MCQUEEN.CIMS.NYU.EDU (David M. McQueen)

> Are you using PVM today?

 Yes. (That is, yes we are using PVM currently, not literally today.)

> What are your application(s)?

 We solve the Incompressible Navier-Stokes equations in the presence of
 immersed elastic fluids, primarily for biological fluid dynamics
 problems. We are currently studying flow in 3D computer models of the
 human heart and of the Virchow-Robin spaces in the human brain. The
 numerical solution of the N-S equations is via a finite-difference
 approach on a 128x128x128 computational grid.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

 IBM RS-6000 workstations in virtual machines consisting of 8 nodes
 and 64 nodes.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Per Loetstedt <perlo@weald.air.saab.se>

Answers to your questions:
1. We are using PVM today on a regular basis.
2. Computational Fluid Dynamics.
3. 2-10 Silicon Graphics R4000 machines in a cluster.

Per Lotstedt
Saab Military Aircraft
Linkoping, Sweden

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: ridout@shasta.plk.af.mil (Brian Ridout (WSAS))

> Are you using PVM today?
Sorry We are not currently using PVM.
>
> What are your application(s)?
When we begin using PVM it will be for assorted solid 3D modeling codes.
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
The machines will be Sun Sparc stations 2's, 10's, and 20's.
>
The installation was great. Very easy. Thanks for the quality.
********************************************************************
* Brian Ridout (Phillips Laboratory) (voice) 505-846-4349 *
* PL/WSAS (DSN) 246-4349 *
* 3550 Aberdeen Ave SE (FAX) 505-846-4374 *
* Kirtland AFB, NM 87117-5776 (E-mail) ridout@plk.af.mil *
********************************************************************
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: sei@masc5.rice.edu (Alain Sei)

	PVM Team,

	Please find below my answers to your PVM survey.

>
> Are you using PVM today?
>

	No Iam not at the moment.

>
> What are your application(s)?
>

	Wave propagation simulations for seismic problems.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>

	3. Sun, IBM RS6000, Cray

	Sincerely,

		Alain Sei

	=====================================================
	| Department of Computational & Applied Mathematics |
	| Rice University 		 |
	| Houston, Texas 77251-1892			 |
	|						 |
 	| E-mail : sei@rice.edu				 |
	| Phone: (713) 527 4805 x 2288			 |
	=====================================================
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: alfieri@dg-rtp.dg.com (Robert Alfieri)

>
> Are you using PVM today?
>

No, but we may port it to our systems.

> What are your application(s)?

Commercial multiprocessing applications on large SMP/NUMA machines and on
clusters of UNIX servers. It would be nice if a user could configure
his PVM application so that part of it runs within a NUMA machine (with
appropriate CPU affinity) and part runs across a cluster of such machines.
The runtime decision would depend on the availability of machine resources
and on the desired degree of high availability. If it doesn't already,
it would be nice if PVM were cluster-aware and had some hooks related to high
availability (e.g., initiating recovery after node failure). There are
no standards in the clusters space. There is an opportunity for someone
to define a standard way of doing message-passing, distributed locking, and
application start/stop/recovery within a cluster environment. If the standard
also runs on a NUMA without changing application code, even better.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>

Have never used it and have never looked at the interfaces.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: arunp@engr.uky.edu (Arun P. Muthukumar)
>
>Are you using PVM today?
 yes
>
>What are your application(s)?
 experimental programs
 electromagnetics algorithm on Sun's

>
>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 Sun's, HP's, Next, and Convex Exemplar

>
>Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
 it will be helpful to have a manual or more documentation for XPVM

>
>
arun

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Arun P Muthukumar phone : 606-252-1089
Dept.of EE. E-mail : arunp@engr.uky.edu
Univ.of Kentucky
Lexington. WWW-URL: www.engr.uky.edu/~arunp
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <S.J.Shepherd@bradford.ac.uk>

Gentelmen

While I am not using PVM today, we do use it regularly on a large
(270 workstation) SUN network for horrendous problems in number
theory that take a LOT of parallel crunching. A splendid piece
of software - keep up the good work!!!!

Dr Simon J Shepherd
University of Bradford, UK.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: courtox@univ-rennes1.fr (Francis Courteaux)

1) Yes I'm using PVM today
2) teacher in University in parallel systems
 IBM System Engineer working with customer using IBM clusters and IBM SP2
 Application: Sismic, hydraulic, Ray tracing
3) In University we have many machines so PVM is currently ruuning
at Nantes University with a cluster of 8 RISC S/6000 and 8 SUN Sparc2
at IRESTE scholl: 16 RISC S/6000
at Nantes School of mines: 16 SUN Sparc10
With Customers: I have SUN RISC S/6000 SGI and 2 SP2.
I use PVMe with SP2 and sometimes PVM/6000 when I have only RISC S/6000
installed.
4) What I want: a native support of ATM, because I need small latency
at a small price.
Thank you for working for us.
I need also good samples with real application.
Question: Is your book available ? from MIT press, the name I think
is PVM:Parallel Virtual Machine A users's Guide and tutorial for
Parallel Computing.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Gerald Loeffler" <gl@coil>

Are you using PVM today?
	Yes

What are your application(s)?
	Molecular Dynamics of solvated proteins, demo applications for teaching
	purposes

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
	4 HP9000/720
	1 SGI Indigo (R4000)
	1 SGI Indy (R4000)
	1 SGI Indy (R4400)

Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
	A generic (i.e. object-oriented) implementation in C++ would be great.
	This would contain classes like Task, Buffer, Group.
	I tried to write this as a wrapper to the existing API, but this is
very
	difficult, since the C-API uses integer identifiers to objects a lot,
	which doesn't translate very well into the object-oriented world. A
	generic C++-implementation (as I said) of PVM would be much cleaner.

--
Gerald Loeffler
PhD student in Theoretical Biochemistry

Email: gl@mdy.univie.ac.at
Phone: +43 1 40480 612
Fax: +43 1 4028525
Mail: University of Vienna
 Institute for Theoretical Chemistry
 Theoretical Biochemistry Group
 Waehringerstrasse 17/Parterre
 A-1090 Wien, Austria

#include "fancy_ASCII_picture"
#include "funny_statement"
#include "standard_disclaimer"

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: jlcruz@sun630.uco.es (Jose Luis Cruz Soto)

Are you using PVM today? yes

What are your application(s)? numerical simulation on fluid mechanic

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM? 6 machines SPARC-IPX (Sun) + 1 Alpha (Digital)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: emily@cc.gatech.edu (Emily Angerer Crawford)

> Are you using PVM today?
>
Yes.

> What are your application(s)?
>
I am the support person for PVM at Georgia Tech's Office of Information
Technology, High Performance Computing group. I have mainly run test cases
but have encountered people running all sorts of applications, including
mainly some molecular dynamics codes and atmospheric modelling.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
Georgia Tech officially has PVM installed on a cluster of three RS/6000's, a
Cray YMP-EL, and a KSR-2 (although the last is not installed to utilize
multiple processors unless the user's task does so explicitly). We have
recently added an SP/2 which will use PVM as its main library for
parallelization. I have worked on all of these machines as well as on some
unofficial installations on SUN4 architectures. For my personal use, I have
installed it on a pair of 486-DX/2-66's running LINUX (and encountered no
significant problems in doing so).

--

Emily Angerer Crawford
OIT High Performance Computing
(emily@cc.gatech.edu)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Isaac Hasbani <isaac@fdi.com>
>
> Are you using PVM today?
A: Not yet just starting

> What are your application(s)?
A: Computerized Fluid Dynamics

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
A: Since we are just starting,.. SGI

Regards
Isaac Hasbani

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <Karl_E_Hillesland%~WHC210@ccmail.pnl.gov>

 I set up PVM to be used for running MCNP (Monte Carlo
 N-Particle transport code) on multiple SUN4 type
 workstations. This implementation of MCNP-PVM was set up as
 a back-up for running MCNP on lower powered desktop
 workstations (SUN elc, slc, ipx, ... up to SPARC 2
 technology) in parallel when the higher powered servers are
 unavailable. I have used up to six of these workstations at
 a time.

 I am not aware of anyone using PVM recently,
 but with some rummored changes in charge rates for server
 use, it may come into more extensive use in the near future.

 Karl Hillesland
 Westinghouse Hanford Company
 Richland, WA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: sn01@Lehigh.EDU (SUDHAKAR NETI)

PVM is being used by Prof. Hasan Barada on IBM 6000 machines at Lehigh.

I am in the process of installing PVM on another group of IBM 6000 machines
on Ethernet for large Fluid Flow / Heat Transfer computations.

We are having some minor difficulties in getting some of the files to work
together; but we hope to overcome that with Prof. Barada's help.

Thank you and keep up the good work.
S. Neti
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\//\/\
\ Sudhakar Neti /
/ Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics \
\ Packard Laboratory _______________ /
/ 19 Packer Drive West | |\
\ Lehigh University | HAVE |/
/ Bethlehem, PA 18015-3085 | A |\
\ Phone 610-758-4117 | NICE |/
/ FAX 610-974-6466 / 610-758-6224 | DAY. |\
\ .................................. |______________|/
 \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: PHIL M WILLIAMS <paxpw@vax.ccc.nottingham.ac.uk>

Hi,

1.	No, we are not using PVM TODAY. Although we do still use PVM.

2.	Programs - distributed data visualization system, image processing and
	molecular modelling.

3.	HP-735s.

Thanks,

Phil Williams
Laboratory of Biophysics and Surface Analysis
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
The University of Nottingham.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: rob@fspark.ece.uiuc.edu (Robert Wagner)

Are you using PVM today?

No, but I have used it in the past.

What are your application(s)?

Computational Electromagnetics.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

I have used PVM with a network of about 20 workstations,
mostly SUN Sparc 2 and SUN Sparc 10 machines, plus a few
IBM RS6000 machines.

Regards,
Robert Wagner
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <codes@toxh71.ph.unito.it>
>
> Are you using PVM today? yes
>
> What are your application(s)? astrophysical hydrodynamics
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM? 3 HP700
>
>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: rbw@server01.lncc.br (Ramiro Brito Willmersdorf)
>
> Are you using PVM today?

 Yes

> What are your application(s)?

 Finite element solution of incompressible fluid flow, elliptic
 problems in general.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

 CLusters of sun's and IBM RS6000's, IBM SP1

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

 Native support for IBM SP1 high-performance (eh ;) switch.
 IBM's pvme is always out of date. *And* you have to pay for it.

> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
>
> Your help is much appreciated.

 So is your work,

> Best wishes,

 Same to you!

> The PVM Project Team
>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Ian Parsons <ian@cs.ualberta.ca>
>
> Are you using PVM today?
>

Yes.

> What are your application(s)?

Various: numerical analysis, game tree search, biochemical-medical
docking problems (monte carlo and searching), and research into
templated parallel computations and I/O.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

HP, AIX, SUN4, SGIX, ALPHA. Networks of 10-20 workstations typically
but we have just had the SP2 installed so I am looking forward to exercising
PVM on a "fast" machine :)

>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

Could there please be some mechanism for polling on a partial subset of
connected processes? For example, I have an application where the
parent (a manager) sends out work to child processes. Before accepting
any new messages from the parent of the manager, the manager must first
drain a "reply" message from the child (ie. send work only to idle
workers). I can block on a child or all processes or on a message type
or all message types. I need to be able to block (not busy wait
either!!!) on a *selected* sublist of processes. My current solution
(a modification of busy wait) is to insert a usleep after the polling
call. The interval of the usleep progressively grows to some
predetermined value. After getting a message, the interval is reset to 1.

A poll or block on a sublist of processes would be really nice!

=============================================================================
 Ian Parsons
 Department of Computing Science email: ian@cs.ualberta.ca
 University of Alberta phone: (403) 492-5869
 Edmonton, Alberta, Canada fax: (403) 492-1071
 T6G 2H1 office: 493 Central Academic Building
=============================================================================
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Chun Gong <gong@cs.pitt.edu>

>Are you using PVM today?

Not today.

>What are your application(s)?

I am using pvm to simulate a distributed-memory parallel computer and
run some program under single-program multiple-data model.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

I used to run PVM with 4--8 Sun workstattions, but these days I run PVM on
a Cary-T3D paralle computer.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Mark.Hale@cad.gatech.edu (Mark Hale)
>
>Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

>What are your application(s)?

We are looking into agent-based applications from a design perspective.
Agents have three components: a resource, model, and wrap. PVM provides
one communication channel for the Communications layer of the wrap.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

AIX, SunOS
RS6000, Sparc

>Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
>Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

Looks great. Keep up the good work. I see your plans for the future and
you appear to be on track.

Mark Hale
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
CAE/CAD Laboratory |
Aerospace Systems Design Laboratory |
Georgia Institute of Technology | There are those who work all day
Atlanta, GA 30332 | There are those who dream all day
(404) 894-9810 | As for me, I work to fulfill my dreams
(404) 894-9812 FAX |
Mark.Hale@cad.gatech.edu |
http://www.cad.gatech.edu/image |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
IMAGE: Intelligent Mutlidisciplinary Aircraft Generation Environment
DREAMS: Developing Robust Engineering Analysis Models and Specifications
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: baer@cs.nps.navy.mil (Wolfgang Baer)

Are you using PVM today?

 Not regularly, but have tried some tests on networked SUN stations.

What are your application(s)?
	I am lookin for a program standard interface to allow the development of parallel programs which have some capability of being ported accross platforms. I am using 16 to 48 Transputer and PowerPC processors and have developed our own communications harness. This works great but is not compatible with anyone else. I am tired of rewriting the application for every new version of hardware. So my interrest in PVM is as a potential parallel programming standard.
 I would like to be able to write the same application as a multi task configuration in a single processor or as a multitask program in multiple processors without rewriting a lot.

Wolfgang BAer, Naval Postgraduate School

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: harvey_werner@MENTORG.COM (Harvey Werner)
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Yes. Here at Mentor Grapics, we are just starting out to use PVM for about
a month now.

>
> What are your application(s)?

We are using PVM as part of a remote analog simulation server.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Just 2 - Sun4 and HP700.

>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

Not at this time. Perhaps in the near future.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Ming Shih <shih@ERC.MsState.Edu>

=>> Dear Colleague,
=>> In order to improve PVM we are trying to understand how
=>> people are using the system. Your feedback is important.
=>> Could you take a moment to answer three questions.
=>>
=>> Are you using PVM today?

	Yes

=>>
=>> What are your application(s)?

	Distributed Flow Calculation (CFD)

=>>
=>> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

	5 SGI
=>>
=>> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
=>> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
=>>
=>> Your help is much appreciated.

=== =====================================================
| =========== Ming-Hsin Shih,Ph.D. Mississippi State University |
| | ( X ) | Fax : (601)325-7692 Engineering Research Center |
| =========== Phone: (601)325-8278 2 Research Blvd. |
| / \ (601)325-2467 Starkville, MS 39759 |
| O 0 shih@ERC.MsState.Edu U.S.A. |
=== =====================================================

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: rudnei@mat.ufrgs.br (Rudnei D. da Cunha)
>
> Are you using PVM today?
Yes.

>
> What are your application(s)?
Parallel solution of sparse linear systems and N-body computations.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
I've used PVM on networks of workstations (Sun, DEC Alpha, HP, SGI),
on the IBM SP1 and on the SGI Challenge.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: campbell@igate1.hac.com (David Campbell)

We are not currently using PVM but this is more do to lack
of time to learn it and port programs than to lack of interest.
My feeling is that we should perhaps make the time, as it
would ultimately be repayed in faster cfd runs.

Regards,
Dave Campbell
Hughes Aircraft
Tucson, AZ
campbell@igate1.hac.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Laurence Koehn <koehn@manip.crhc.uiuc.edu>

>Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

>What are your application(s)?

Research. Specifically, developing data migration techniques for
parallel processors. I'm using PVM to test the techniques without
having to use an actual parallel processing machine.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

I've used up to four SUN4 machines.

Laurence Koehn
koehn@manip.crhc.uiuc.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Brian Powell <bpowell@osc.edu>

From the fingertips of pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu:
>
> Are you using PVM today?
>
Yes.

> What are your application(s)?
>
Many, varied scientific applications. Several scientists are using it
for their CFD and Q-Chem applications.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
We have it on a Cray T3D (Cray's version) and your version on a
cluster of 10 DEC Alpha 3000 workstations.

-- Brian

o-----------------------The Ohio Supercomputer Center-----------------------o
| Brian S. Powell bpowell@osc.edu |
o-----------------------"My other computer is a CRAY"-----------------------o
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: jzh@ornl.gov (Jeff Holmes)
>
>Are you using PVM today? Yes
>
>What are your application(s)? Coupled climate models: ocean, atmosphere,
ice, terrestrial controlled by flux exchange driver module.
>
>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM? Intel Paragon,
IBM RS6000
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: vst@asl1.ikp.uni-bonn.de (Volker Strom)

> Are you using PVM today?
>
Yes

> What are your application(s)?
>
In the german joint project VERBMOBIL (speech analysis, machine translation
et al.) PVM now is used as basis for the inter-module communication
enviroment ICE; ask Jan Willers Amtrup <jan@nats2.informatik.uni-hamburg.de>
for more information.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
Three SPARC 10 stations.

Volker Strom
-----------------------------------------------------
Volker Strom
Institut fuer Kommunikationsforschung und Phonetik (IKP)
Universitaet Bonn
Poppelsdorfer Allee 47
D-53115 Bonn, Germany

phone +49 (228) 73 56 40 and -56 31
fax +49 (228) 73 56 39
email vst@asl1.ikp.uni-bonn.de
-----------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: hartung@aea.ruhr-uni-bochum.de (Klaus Hartung)

>Are you using PVM today?
Yes

>What are your application(s)?
Signal Processing, Mutimedia-Applications, Psychophysical Measurements

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
3 SPARC 10, 1 SPARC 20, 4 Indy, 2 Iris Indigo

Klaus Hartung
Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum
Lehrstuhl fuer allgemeine Elektrotechnik und Akustik
44780 Bochum

Tel.: 0234/700 5872
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Robert P. Goddard" <rpg@ping.apl.washington.edu>

PVM Survey,

	The following response is copied from my response to the 1993 survey,
e-mailed to you on 16 August 1993. Unfortunately, the situation has not
changed.

	No, I am not using PVM today.
	My potential future PVM application is in simulation of underwater
sound. The current version is the Sonar Simulation Toolset. It produces
sampled sound as "heard" by a user-specified moving multi-channel active or
passive sonar system in a specified ocean containing any number of moving
targets (sound reflectors) and sound sources, plus reverberation, ambient
noise, and self-noise. The resulting sound is suitable for listening, or for
feeding to the back end of a sonar processor (or a computer model of one). It
is used for testing and developing sonar systems, training sonar operators,
predicting performance, developing tactics, planning experiments, and
interpreting measurements. Reference (out of date): Proc. Oceans 89, IEEE
Publication 89CH2780-5, pp. 1217-1222.
	I anticipate using a mix of a dozen or so Sun-4 and NeXT computers, and
whatever else is available at that uncertain future date, if and when I use PVM
at all.
	I downloaded PVM 3.0 from netlib@ornl.gov on 27 April 1993, after
reading Dongarra et al., "Integrated PVM Framework Supports Heterogeneous
Network Computing", Computers In Physics 7 #2, Mar/Apr 1993, 166-175. My
motivation was mostly curiosity, to find out whether PVM has the potential to
help me satisfy my very substantial computational requirements. Since then, I
haven't had time to pursue the question further.

Dr. Robert P. Goddard, Senior Physicist
Applied Physics Laboratory
University of Washington
1013 NE 40th Street
Seattle, WA 98105-6698
206-543-1267
Internet: rpg@apl.washington.edu

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Roar Skalin" <Roar.Skaalin@sima.sintef.no>
>
> Are you using PVM today?
>
Yes

> What are your application(s)?

Atmospheric models (numerical weather prediction and air pollution)

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

PVM is one of serveral message-passing systems in our codes. The
codes are used by several people on different platforms, but I believe
PVM is mainly used on vector-parallel CRAYs, workstations and
to a certain extend on CRAY T3D and Intel Paragon (but here SHMEM (T3D)
and NX (Paragon) are used most of the time).

Best regards,
Roar Skaalin

--
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Roar Skaalin : Phone: +47 73 59 30 45 |
| SINTEF Industrial Mathematics : Fax: +47 73 59 29 71 |
| N-7034 Trondheim, NORWAY : e-mail: roar.skaalin@sima.sintef.no |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: David Jensen <djensen@sed.psrw.com>

Are you using PVM today?
 --- YES

What are your application(s)?
 --- DoD Intelligence Applications
 --- Finite Element Analysis
 --- CFD (Soon?)
 --- Game Tree Analysis (Soon?)

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 --- RS/6000
 --- SP1
 --- Sun Sparcstations
 --- DecStation
 --- Dec Alpha
 --- SGI (soon I hope)
 --- CM-5 (soon?)

Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
 --- MPI compatible interface. (Bletch - ptuuey)
 --- Deamon-less mode of operation (Concept - Link equivalent of
 deamon into executable - rsh start of code on other machines)
 --- Light-weight thread (or task) support for group members.
 (Maybe its there already, I haven't looked at user guide for
 several releases)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: evd@nuccard.eushc.org (Ed DiBella)

Not using pvm today

Use for iterative reconstruction of emission
computed tomography data

Have used with 7 machines including
Sun, RS6K, Dec Alpha, Dec 5100
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: John Snyder <jps@hstn.tensor.pgs.com>
>
> Are you using PVM today?

	Yes
>
> What are your application(s)?

	I have ported PGS Tensor's Cube Manager Software Suite from
the Intel i860/Paragon message passing paradim to PVM. We are currently
using the PVM version on 2 SP2's. The following breifly describes our software
package. This overview relates to the i860, but the model is the same for
the PVM version.

 CUBE MANAGER OVERVIEW
 ---------------------

 The Cube Manager (CM) is a 3D seismic data processing system
designed to run on a MIMD parallel supercomputer. It controls
the flow of seismic data from tape or disk through a sequence of
2 or 3D seismic processes, which may take place in separate pro-
cessing nodes of the parallel computer, returning the results
back to tape or disk. The hardware configuration consists of a
workstation network connected to the parallel computer through
its resource manager which in turn is connected to the individual
processing nodes by internal hardware links. The general archi-
tectural philosophy of the CM is to try and hide the complexities
of the parallel computer from the user and programmer by means
of a combination of parallel data structures and a parallel tool-
kit. Major software components of the system are: an operator
GUI (CMJC for Cube Manager Job Control), a user GUI (CMUI for
Cube Manager User Interface), and subsections of the CM which
run on the attached workstations, the resource manager, and in
the processing nodes.

 The MIMD parallel supercomputer currently used is the iPSC/860
supplied by the SSD division of Intel Corporation. This machine is
configured with up to 128 processor nodes, an internal parallel
disc system known as the Concurrent File System (CFS), and 8mm SCSI
tape drives. Any subset of compute nodes must be a power of two
and is called a "cube" because of the machine's hypercube architec-
ture. The CM can be booted in any size cube. It further divides
the cube into individual job partitions which may be any size.
The CM software is general enough to be adapted to other MIMD
parallel computers as well as to the computational requirements
of other data-intensive endeavors.

 The iPSC/860 is interfaced to the network of workstations by
ethernet. One workstation in the network is designated the host
(or server) for the iPSC/860 and contains system utility soft-
ware such as compilers and linkers. A separate dedicated work-
station is the system resource manager (SRM) which serves as the
gateway to the system. The SRM is provided by Intel and runs a
stripped-down version of Unix. Its sole function is to manage
cubes of compute nodes on the iPSC/860. There are two special
nodes within the iPSC/860 system itself, the Ethernet and service
nodes. The Ethernet node is connected to the workstation network
and allows network file operations to be performed on the CFS. The
service node is a scalar processor which facilitates non-floating
point tasks which would otherwise consume a compute node.

 Typical CM Network Hardware Configuration
 -----------------------------------------

 -----------------
 | SUN WORKSTATION |
 | REMOTE HOST (1) |-----
 | INTEL SERVER | | -----------
 ----------------- |__________|Ethernet |
 | | |Node |
 -------------- | ----------- | |
 | USER SUN (1) | | | SRM (1) |----| INTEL (1) |
 | WORKSTATION | | ----------- | |
 -------------- | | | |
 | | | | |
 | | | -----------
 -------------- | |
 | USER SUN (2) | | |
 | WORKSTATION | | Ethernet
 -------------- | Network
 | | |
 |----------------| |
 | | | -----------
 | | |__________|Ethernet |
 | | | |Node |
 -------------- | ----------- | |
 | USER SUN (N) | | | SRM (2) |----| INTEL (2) |
 | WORKSTATION | | ----------- | |
 -------------- | | | |
 | | | |
 ----------------- | -----------
 | SUN WORKSTATION | |
 | REMOTE HOST (2) |-----
 | INTEL SERVER |
 -----------------

 The iPSC/860 supports both 3480 IBM-compatible cartridge tape
drives and 8mm exabyte tape drives. In general, all Tensor inter-
nal data resides on exabyte 8200 or 8500 tapes. The cartridge
drives are used for the input and output of external data tapes.
Electrostatic plotting is done via third party Geoscan software
that rasters data on an Intel node. Seismic programs, known in the
CM system as Procedures, generate plot metafiles on the Intel disc.
The format of these metafiles is an internal vector drafting format.
Geoscan plotting software is then used to raster the plot metafile
on the Intel and the operator spools the rastered data to the ap-
propriate electrostatic plotter. Data can also be directly dis-
played on the users workstation screen using the XPLOT interactive
procedure without having to generate a plot metafile.

 The Intel iPSC/860 features a parallel diskfile system known
as the Concurrent File System (CFS). It consists of multiple disk
drives which are typically 1.5 Gbytes in capacity. These multiple
disk drives are made to look like one very large contiguous disk-
file by the CFS software. Individual CFS files are striped across
the constituent disks in the file system. Therefore, the user does
not have to be concerned on which physical disk their data resides.
All data files are readable and writeable by all nodes in the sys-
tem.

 In general, the local diskfile systems resident on one work-
station are cross-mounted on all the other workstations on the net-
work. This allows a user access to any file on any of the cross-
mounted file systems. File system cross-mounting is accomplished
by the Network File System (NFS) software.

 The Intel CFS diskfile system is not, however, cross-mounted
with either the workstation NFS network or with the CFS systems on
other Intel machines. This means that the Sun workstation user
cannot directly access diskfiles on the Intel CFS from his worksta-
tion. It also means that if a user wishes to use a CFS dataset in
a job on another Intel computer, the dataset must first be trans-
ferred to the other Intel CFS by means of tar tape backup or the
File Transfer Protocal (FTP) procedure. In order to allow the user
a means of managing their own data on the Intel CFS disfile system,
there are three procedures; CFSLST, CFSDEL and CFSTAR that allow
the user to list, delete and backup files by CM jobs setup via CMUI.

 The Cube Manager software itself consists of several Unix dae-
mons which run in the various hardware components of the iPSC/860.
Three of these: the synchronizer, logger, and log formatter run on
the service node. The Executive Shell daemon runs in each proces-
sing node. It is the part of the Cube Manager which ties processes
together into jobs. Two daemons run on the SRM: the linker and
loader. Finally, the operator and user interfaces: CMJC and CMUI,
the CM kernel itself, a linker, and the data base daemons run on
the front end Sun workstation. All of these daemons are in commu-
nication with each other and cooperate to interface with the oper-
ator and users, build executable code images, initiate job execu-
tion, monitor jobs, collect the log messages and present them to
the user after job termination. Clearly this is a complicated sys-
tem! To understand it, let us "walk" a job through the whole se-
quence.

 The user builds a seismic job flow interactively on his local
Sun workstation via CMUI. This job flow can then be either sub-
mitted directly by the user from CMUI for interactive execution
or given to the Intel operator in the computer room who submits it
by means of CMJC. If it involves tape mounts or if it can be run
later as a batch job, then the operator route is more convenient.
The CM kernel on the Sun receives the job and breaks it down into
its components. It looks around on the host Sun disks for old exe-
cutables that have the required seismic processes embedded in them.
If it can reuse old execuables it does; otherwise, it proceeds to
build new executable images with the specified seismic processes
for execution in the nodes. So far, everything has happened on
the front end Sun network. The CM kernel then loads the executa-
ble images, along with the resident Executive Shell into the nodes
by using the loader daemon in the SRM. Communication between the
Sun host and the SRM is handled by the pair of linker daemons: one
in the Sun and the other in the SRM. The CM initializes the log-
ger daemon in the service node.

 At this point everything is ready to run; however, in order
to verify the whole software environment, the CM firsts sends a
round robin message to the compute nodes and waits for its return.
If all is well, the CM starts the job executing. During execution,
the two linker, and synchronizer daemons are available to the job
for utility functions. Log messages output from the job or the CM
are accumulated by the logger daemon. At the finish of job execu-
tion, the CM uses the log formatter daemon to sort the log mes-
sages into chronological order and write the resulting CM execu-
tion log back to the front end Sun disk. Information concerning
tape datasets created or modified is kept track of by the data base
daemon.

 Before discussing the various components of the CM in detail,
we should first mention "namespaces" which are the glue that holds
everything together. A namespace is a tree-type data structure
on which is hung information. Like a tree, a namespace has a root
where it begins and a series of branches whose intersections are
given simple names. The leaves or fruit of the namespace tree are
the data names and their values. So a namespace data structure
consists of four major items: the tree structure, the intersection
names, the data names, and the actual data values. Namespaces can
reside in memory as tree structures or be condensed to a form suit-
able for storage on disk or for transmission to other hosts or CM
nodes. On disk they can be viewed on the screen by use of the
utility: "nscat". Namespaces can be concatenated, split, or pruned
to make other namespaces as the need may arise.

 The highest level of the CM is managed by the GUI: CMJC for
Cube Manager Job Control. It oversees all of the software that
runs in (is "booted" in) an Intel iPSC/860 cube. Usually the CMJC
cube is booted in the computer room on the host workstation and is
controlled or managed by the computer operator. However, for test-
ing or special work, a user may boot his own cube on his worksta-
tion which will communicate with the host workstation over the lo-
cal network. In this case a CMJM display will appear on his work-
station screen and the user will have complete control over all
jobs running under his cube. In either case, the cube is described
by the "master namespace" which is a concatenation of all the indi-
vidual job namespaces that are running under the cube.

 The CMJC GUI has four classes of functions: Jobs, Nodes, No-
tices, and Namespace. The Jobs function allows the operator to:
Check, Start, Abort, or Kill individual jobs. Batch jobs are han-
dled with this function as well as user jobs that are hung or im-
properly terminated. The Nodes function allows the operator to
Enable, Disable, or Inquire nodes in the cube. Usually, hardware
problems with nodes require the operator to intervene with this
function. The Notices functions: Respond and Delete, provide a
mechanism for the operator to communicate with jobs requiring some
action such as a tape mount or plotting a file on the electrosta-
tic plotter. The last function: Namespsace allows the operator to
Browse, Set, or Print the master namespace. Browse is a means of
navigating through the master namespace and its constituent job
components by listing on the screen the data values at each inter-
section. The operator (or user) can probe down to any level in
order to monitor job progression and performance.

 The primary tool for the user to interact with the CM is the
GUI CMUI. This can be considered a user-orientated window into the
cube managed by a CMJC GUI. The user can construct CM jobs from
several dozen CM procedures, submit them, abort or kill them, and
monitor their performance. The user cannot control individual nodes,
respond to messages, or browse other job's namespaces. The job flow
is built by either editing an existing job or by selecting procedures
from a list of procedures displayed in a window on the lhs of the
CMUI display. Each procedure is selected by clicking the mouse on
its procedure name. It then appears as a white box in the job build
part of the display with the name of the procedure inside.

 Each procedure is parameterised by clicking the right mouse
button on the white box of the procedure. This will simultaneously
list the parameters required by the procedure and, below, general
documentation for the procedure's function. The user then selects
parameters for input by clicking with the left mouse button. Par-
ameter description is automatically presented for that parameter in
a documentation window. The parameter values are then typed into a
parameter input window. A set of red control buttons appear which
allow the user to delete, set defaults, and repeat parameters for
the procedure.

 Once all the procedures for a job have been parameterised, the
job can be saved to disk under a user-specified name, and then sub-
mitted either directly from CMUI or given indirectly to the Intel com-
puter operator. Usually jobs with more than one input tape or that
produce an output tape are submitted by the Intel computer operator.
When a job flow is saved, it is saved as a namespace disc file under
a user-specified name. The ".job" filename extension is supplied by
(or assumed by) CMUI. All job files are saved in the "/job" sub-
directory under the user's project directory.

 In order to understand the project filesystem we must first
digress a bit. Before jobs can be submitted, the user must have a
CM user project account in both the workstation "/tensordb" and
Intel CFS filesystems. Usually, only CM data will be written to the
CFS. However, the "/tensordb/project" directory contains five sub-
directories which perform vital CM functions. They are: "/job",
"/log", "/db", "/plot", and "/prog". All ".job" files for the pro-
ject are are stored in "/job". All CM logger files are returned to
the "/log" subdirectory. They have a ".log" filename extension. The
"/db" subdirectory contains data base files describing input and
output data resident in the "/cfs/project" filesystem. Other data
base information stored in the "/db" directory includes CDP grid
definition files for 3-D surveys that have a ".grid" file exten-
sion and SEGD header files that have a ".sdb" file extension.
Plot files created by raster procedures on the Intel will be re-
turned to the "/plot" subdirectory. Finally, nonstandard CM pro-
cedure objects are stored in the "/prog" subdirectory.

 If a job generates a plot metafile, this file is stored under
the "/cfs/geoscan" directory as a filename which is based on the
".job" filename that created it. Presently, plots are manually
queued for plotting by the operator.

 Programmers and software support personnel typically operate
under a personal project name such as /tensordb/david and /cfs/david,
while production groups setup a project for a survey and all pro-
cessors working on that survey work in the same project directory.
Project directories are usually setup and managed by the system ad-
ministrator.

 For example, a job constructed using CMUI that is created for
the project: "Olayoil" is given the name "stack". This job outputs
a disc dataset called "finalstack" and a tape dataset called
"gathers". For this job, the following files will be generated:

Directory FileName Format Comments
--------- -------- ------ --------

/tensordb/Olayoil/job stack.job namespace Job flow file created
 by CMUI.

/tensordb/Olayoil/log stack.log ascii Runtime log for stack.job

/tensordb/Olayoil/db finalstack.cmds namespace Dataset summary file for
 CFS dataset 'finalstack'.

/tensordb/Olayoil/db gathers.cmds namespace Dataset summary file for
 tape dataset 'gathers'.

/cfs/Olayoil finalstack binary Seismic data for dataset
 'finalstack'

 The remaining chapters in the CM Programmer's Guide that
follow cover all the items we have alluded to above with our
overview in considerable detail. These fall into, roughly, four
categories: functional descriptions of the CM software elements,
dataset formats, operational instruction, and general philosophy.
Chapters 2 (Creating the Namespace Descriptor file), 3 Creating
the Run-Time Code), 5 (The Synchronizer and its Services), and 7
(Special Libraries) fall into the first category. Chapter 4
(Data Structures) forms the second category. Chapters 8 (Special
Procedures), 9 (Testing, Debugging, and Releasing Procedures),
and 12 (Tutorial) make up the instruction or third category.
Lastly, Chapters 6 (Namespaces), 10 (Aspects of Parallism), and
11 (Future Directions) provide the philosophical framework of
the whole system.

 We had considered adding a thirteenth Chapter with exercis-
es for the student-user but that number was judged to be unlucky
and, therefore, a chapter unlikely to be read. Upon reflection,
twelve Chapters of detailed description should be plenty! If
anyone works their way through the whole Guide and wants more,
they can start again at the Overview and will be amazed at what
they have forgotten since starting. The Cube Manager (CM) is a
3D seismic data processing system.....
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

	2 IBM SP2's (390 and 590 nodes)
	2 Intel Paragon's (192 nodes each)
	8 Intel i860's (64 nodes each)
	7 Intel i860's (32 nodes each)
>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
>
> Your help is much appreciated.
>
> Best wishes,
> The PVM Project Team
>
> ps. Previous survey results are available through World Wide Web at
> http://www.epm.ornl.gov/pvm/
>
> pps. We apologize if you received multiple copies of this message.
> Our first attempt at sending the message uncovered a bug in our mailer.
>

--
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
|John Snyder | You have been awarded a Certification of Merit |
|jps@hstn.tensor.pgs.com | for your good work. Now you must destroy it, |
| | after all this is a secret organization. |
| | ...The Chief (Get Smart) |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Randy Wilson <randy@axon.cs.byu.edu>

> Are you using PVM today?

Not at the present.

> What are your application(s)?

When I did use PVM, I was using a ray-traced computer graphics program
that I had written. In such programs, each pixel of an image must be
computed independently by intersecting a ray sent from the 'eye' to the
pixel and on into the 3-D 'environment' or 'world'. There can be
reflection/refraction and other rays, and the calculations take quite
some time (hours for some images).
 So I had a 'master' program spawn 10 'slaves' on 10 HP-700
workstations. Each slave would ask the master for one line of the image
to work on, until all the lines of the image were calculated, at which
point the master killed all the slaves and saved out the final image.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Like I said above, I used 10 HP Workstations of a few different kinds.
Two were HP-718i (I think), and the others were HP-700's. All ran the
same binaries, though at different speeds.

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

I thought it was pretty well done as is.

> Your help is much appreciated.

You're welcome!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: fchism@craysea.cray.com (Frank W. Chism)

> Are you using PVM today?

Yes, I use PVM on several current projects.

> What are your application(s)?

I am a benchmarking speciallist at Cray Research. Most of the codes I
work on that use PVM are ports of PVM based codes from others.
Currently, I have active projects involving PVM based applications
performing molecular dynanics, fuild dynamics, and global climate
calculations.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

I use PVM primarily on one of three CRAY T3D. I have used it on CRAY
Y-MPs and C90s as well.

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

PVM should keep track of the number of calls to the various routines
and amount of data moved and provide options to display and reset these
counts.

> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

Done!

> Your help is much appreciated.

You are welcome. Thanks for asking.

>
> Best wishes,
> The PVM Project Team

Good bye and good coding,

Frank Chism
Senior Analyst
Benchmarking and Optimization Group
Cray Research Western Region
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Manu Konchady <manu@geo.gsfc.nasa.gov>

 Answer 1. Yes, I am using PVM today.

 Answer 2. We are developing a coupled climate model on heterogeneous
 systems using PVM.

 Answer 3. I have used a SUN Sparc 2, DEC 2100 ALPHA, and a Cray C90.

 Suggestion: Include documentation on how PVM and MPI will work together.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: rainer@kokopelli.lanl.gov (Rainer Hollerbach)

Regarding this PVM survey below,

_________________________________________________________

Dear Colleague,
In order to improve PVM we are trying to understand how
people are using the system. Your feedback is important.
Could you take a moment to answer three questions.

Are you using PVM today?

 Yes, I have been using PVM pretty much
 continuously for almost a year now.

What are your application(s)?

 My application is in astrophysical magnetohydro-
 dynamics. I am solving the induction equation
 for the magnetic field in the presence of a
 prescribed fluid flow. I distribute the angular
 modes of the field over the various processors,
 and use PVM to implement the coupling between
 modes.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

 Mostly the T3D here at the Los Alamos Advanced
 Computing Lab, also a cluster of workstations,
 when I was still in the development and testing
 stage.

Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

 As far as I'm concerned, PVM is just about ideal
 as it is. I was particularly impressed at how
 easy it was to port my code from the workstation
 cluster to the T3D. It took me about half a day,
 no more, to implement the few changes in the PVM
 calls.

__________________________________________________________

Rainer Hollerbach
Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos, NM 87545
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Farantos Stavros <farantos@chaos.iesl.forth.gr>

Yes we are ucsing PVM in Molecular Dynamics Calculations, mainly with 4-6
HP-9000 workstations.

Stavros C. Faranros
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: ding@sneffels.phys.nwu.edu (Ding-Chuan Chen)

Are you using PVM today?
no

What are your application(s)?
Ultrsonic attenuation in type II superconductor

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
4 SUN4 and 30 HPPA

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Zhengwen Ju <zju@bme.unc.edu>

> Are you using PVM today?
Yes.

> What are your application(s)?
Distributed 3-D Iterative Image Reconstruction for Quantitative
Single-Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT)

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
Up to 9 DECstations or DEC alphas.

zhengwen ju
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Joseph C. Lappa" <lappa@skynet.psc.edu>
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

> What are your application(s)?

Sending data from a SGI ONXY/2 to a Cray C90 to do analysis

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>

Dec Alpha OSF/1
Cray C90
SGI Indy
SGI ONYX/2
Dec PMAX

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Don Dazlich <dazlich@erehwon.ATMOS.ColoState.EDU>

Are you using PVM today?
Yes

What are your application(s)?
global shallow water model (PVM code under development)

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
HP PA-RISC workstations
Next Workstations
Cray T3D

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Mr. Rakesh R. Patel" <rrp100g@ee.odu.edu>
To: pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu
Subject: Re: PVM survey

Are you using PVM today?
yes.
What are your application(s)?
particle simulation using fast multipole method.
How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
IBM RS6000s, 10 machines
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: wtk@Myrias.AB.CA (Wayne Karpoff)

We use PVM as an internal research tool to understand
concepts that we will incorporate into higher level tools
(ie. our software products, esp. PAMS). We run on networked
Suns and RS6000s, SMP systems, and MPP systems (ours and
IBM SP-2's). We play mostly with synthetic applications as
we use this as a research tool only.

Are you planning to produce a summary of our survey results?
 -Wayne

--------------------------------------------------------
Wayne T. Karpoff, General Manager wtk@myrias.ab.ca
Myrias Computer Technologies Inc. 8522 Davies Road
(403) 463-1337 Fax (403) 465-0130 Edmonton Alberta
--------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: kryukova@cs.caltech.edu (Svetlana A. Kryukova)
>
> Are you using PVM today?
>
Yes.

> What are your application(s)?
>
Mostly combinatorial problems.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
4-8 Suns running SunOS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: abbie@alpha.bldr.nist.gov (Agnes O'Gallagher)

	Are you using PVM today? yes

	What are your application(s)? i am working on a parallel
 version of a code developed by John Gary that solves an
 elastic wave equation.

	How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 cluster of 4 IBM RISC 6000's
 group of SUN workstations
 IBM SP2 (woops, this is PVMe)

	Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
	Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

 on both the IBM RISC 6000 cluster and now on the SP2 i have
 encountered a tendency for either my code or PVM to hang up and
 not return. while i know it is possible that this could be due to
 a bug causing a timing error in my program i have a gut-level
 feeling that it is some interaction of PVM itself with the
 system. in the case of the RS6000's the problem started on one
 particular day and persisted for over a month only to disappear
 completely when the system was taken down for maintenance. but i
 was, apparently, the only person who encountered any difficulty
 during that period. i think that i was not aggressive enough in
 pursuing clues to the problem. instead, i spent the month
 tweaking my program to see if i could make it run. but i did try
 reading those pvml.nnnnn logs and found them very unhelpful
 although they sometimes contained amusing messages like "the mad
 fools. when will they learn?" i guess it might have been helpful
 if there was more actual English in those logs.

 the funny thing is that PVM went up most easily and ran with the
 fewest problems on the network of SUN workstations where I
 installed it myself. not sure what that means.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Ruth L. Hinkins" <rlh@ux6.lbl.gov>

Are you using PVM today? last month, probably next month

What are your application(s)? automatic differentiation, mag. field comput.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM? workstations, mostly									Sun

Ruth Hinkins
rlhinkins@lbl.gov

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <ambati@apollo.hp.com>

>Are you using PVM today?

We offer PVM a Parallel Programming Environment for clusters
of HP workstations.

>What are your application(s)?

None.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

HP 700 series of workstations.

>Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
>Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

We have plans to support Deterministic Replay that would
help developers debug their parallel programs by enabling
them to replicate the behavior of previous runs. The race
condition that exists between pvm_send and pvm_mcast in
the current implementation of PVM forces us to trace all
messages between tasks. If this race condition is fixed,
it would make our implementation of Deterministic Replay
for more usable.

We feel that supporting asynchronous notification of incoming
messages would be a useful feature.

Thanks.

Ashok Ambati.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Jeff Nash" <Jeff.Nash.PHYSICS#u#S#u#E@binhex.llnl.gov>

 Reply to: RE>PVM survey

Dear PVM,

I AM currently using PVM. It is, in fact, critical to my work.

I am developing a portable, distributed computing environment, with
application to modeling experiments in the field of high-temperature plasma
spectroscopy. This work will be appearing in a forthcoming article in the
Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer as: "The
Development of a Distributed Computing Environment for the Design and Modeling
of Plasma Spectroscopy Experiments", by J.K. Nash et al. I am dependent on
the ability of PVM for dynamic spawning and process communication on multiple
architectures and on its ability to work in an X Windows interrupt-driven
environment. We will also be accessing distributed data archives for
substantial amounts of atomic physics data, so data transfer rate is an issue.

We are currently developing on SUN and SGI workstations. We will shortly be
including HP and IBM workstations.

I was very pleased at how simple and free of complications it was to install
PVM on the SUN and SGI machines. I have not yet attempted data transfer at
full scale; I have some concerns, (albeit unjustified) as to data transfer
rate.

CONCERNS:
I also have concern regarding the ability of PVM to establish communications
between different machines. First, it seems that when my home directory is
NFS mounted, (we have a network of SGI machines sharing disk), that I can only
use one SGI in my virtual machine. This may be resolvable in the current PVM
implementation - I do not know.

Second, on the SGI network, the system message sent out on login contains
'echo' statements which I cannot have removed. This is not the case for my
SUN system. The documentation warns of problems with PVM in such cases. I
may have those problems since it seems that I can start PVM from the SGI and
connect to the SUN, but not vice-versa (I may have this reversed, I can live
with this so I haven't documented it yet).

Third, I will want PVM to provide the communications for a general data server
- i.e. for more than one virtual machine. I think this is possible with the
existing system using "groups" but I haven't explored this yet. I have two
uncertainties about the ability of PVM to provide such service in a general
way: i) will I be able to use "groups" to allow the database to connect and
disconnect from multiple virtual machines? ii) will it be necessary to
provide an entry in my .hosts file for every such user? I want a general
capability, without the need to know the names of users before they connect.

Last, I know my system administrators are uncomfortable with the use of the
.hosts file. I would prefer some additional way to provide connectivity.

I am a physicist with only two years experience with UNIX systems and my
project involves many area besides PVM. I have not, therefore fully
researched these concerns. It may be that my answers lie in further exploring
the "group" capabilities of PVM - or that I need to explore UNIX systems
further. Since you requested comments, I have replied!

Let me conclude with the point that PVM has worked SO well, with little
investment on my part, that I have been content to postpone addressing the
above issues. If someone has an opportunity to help answer these questions, I
would be most grateful.

Jeff Nash
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
510-422-7255
jknash@llnl.gov
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: su@milne.geology.yale.edu (Liqiang Su)

>Are you using PVM today?

Yes

>What are your application(s)?

Scientific calculation (seismology)

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

10 Sun Workstations. (2 Sparc10, 8 Sparc2)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <SCHNEIDER@EMBL-Heidelberg.DE>

>> Are you using PVM today?
Yes.
>> What are your application(s)?
Molecular Biology
Fast and sensitive protein database searches.
>> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
SGI Power Challenge
SUN-SPARC
Parsytec PowerXplorer, Parsytec PowerGC
Meiko CS2

Reinhard Schneider
schneider@EMBL-Heidelberg.de
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: cscbp@knuth.mtsu.edu (Dr. Chris Pettey)

> Are you using PVM today?
	Yes.
>
> What are your application(s)?
	1. I am in the process of porting a parallel genetic
		algorithm to pvm.
	2. I use pvm to teach MIMD processing in the
		parallel processing class.
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
	1. 5 HP workstations
	2. 8-10 Vaxstations

>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

	We have a file server that all our workstations use. Therefore,
we can't use the HP's and the Vaxstations in the same virtual machine.
It would be nice if we could use all of our machines.

	Is there a debugger for pvm? I have a grad student that is
interested in creating a parallel object oriented debugger.

Chrisila Pettey
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "H. B. Runesha" <runesha@ce.odu.edu>

Response to your survey:
>Are you using PVM today?
Yes I am using pvm and I have been using it for a year now.
>
>What are your application(s)?
I am trying to implement a finite element code on PVM,and an optimization
code.I am trying to see if pvm could be a cheaper tool for parallel
applications. This is a portion of my phd theses , writing applications
using pvm
>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
I have used more than 10 Sun workstaions (SUN4)
I have been successfull connecting machines with different architectures

> Comments:
I have been having problems:
-connecting machines with different architectures or other sites(location)
-sending messages processor to processor (not to all) in synchronous
communication for more than two processors or when the data are long.
 I will appreciate your help

Thank you
H.B. Runesha
Old Dominion University
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: yjohn@utirc.utoronto.ca (John Ross)
Date: Mon, 9 Jan 95 13:29:57 -0500
To: pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu
Subject: Re: PVM survey

>
>Are you using PVM today?
>
Yes--off and on.

>What are your application(s)?
>
None--for experimental and instructional purposes.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
DECstations, Sun 3, Iris, Indigo, KSR/1.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Humberto Ortiz Zuazaga <humberto@annexstein.csm.uc.edu>

 PVM> Are you using PVM today?

No.

 PVM> What are your application(s)?

Prototype program for solving Boolean Satisfiability problems prepared
for a DIMACS Challenge.

 PVM> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Up to 60 SparcStations, a standalone linux PC for development.

Humberto Ortiz Zuazaga zuazaga@ucunix.san.uc.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: apon@dubois.fisk.edu (Amy Apon)

 > Are you using PVM today?

 Yes.

 > What are your application(s)?

 I am running simple applications (LU Decomposition) for
 the purposes of measuring and developing a queueing
 network model of a parallel system.

 > How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

 Seven Sun SPARC stations running Solaris 2.3.

 > Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
 > Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

 It would be helpful if you put the tech_faq in the .tar
 file that includes the distribution and initial Readme,
 or at least some comments in the Readme file about how
 to get the User's Guide, the FAQ, and other useful
 information.

Cheers,
Amy

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Amy W. Apon, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Computer Science
Dept. of Math and Comp. Sci., Fisk University, Nashville, TN 37208

TEL: (615) 329-8671 EMAIL: apon@dubois.fisk.edu
FAX: (615) 329-8634 WWW: http://www.fisk.edu/~apon/home.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Stella Hadjimarkos" <Stella.Hadjimarkos.LDIV@binhex.llnl.gov>

Are you using PVM today? YES

What are your application(s)? COG: A MONTE CARLO COMPUTER PROGRAM
DEVELOPED AT LLNL, THAT DOES PARTICLE TRANSPORT. IT IS USED BY
PHYSICISTS AND ENGINEERS IN SHIELDING AND CRITICALITY PROBLEMS.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
FOUR UNIX MACHINES, INCLUDING HP, SUN AND SGI WORKSTATIONS.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Tim Raymund <traymund@arlut.utexas.edu>

>Are you using PVM today?

No.

>What are your application(s)?

Space physics and remote sensing.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

About 30 HP 9000/7xx series workstations.

>Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

A "self-parallizing" compiler (e.g. one that would do loop unroll,
vector math, etc.) would help alot. We have lots of code, but no time
to rewrite in the PVM calls.

tim.
---
T. D. Raymund | phone: 512/835-3833
ARL:UT | fax: 512/835-3259
P.O. BOX 8029 | internet:
traymund@arlut.utexas.edu
Austin, TX 78713-8029 | MIME welcome!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: volker@haydn.informatik.Uni-Osnabrueck.DE (Volker Schnecke)

> Are you using PVM today?
>
	Yes.

> What are your application(s)?
>
	Tree Search Algorithms (Optimization Problems)
	Parallel Genetic Algorithms for VLSI-Design
		(Floorplanning and Routing in full custom
		Physical Design of VLSI-Chips)

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
	Up to 14 Sun Sparcs (ELC, IPX, S10, S20)
	Only for fun a heterogeneous network of
		Sun, HP and Next Workstations
 	Parsytec MC-2 and GCel-Transputer-Systems with up
		to 512 Processors (Due to the small memory (4MB)
		on a single Transputer I have only done the
		tree search on this machines)
	Heterogeneous Network with Tasks on 512 Transputers and
		Tasks on the Frontend-Workstation (Sun Sparc) of
		the MC-2 and the GCel

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "P.W. Dowd" <dowd@eng.buffalo.edu>

% Are you using PVM today?
yes.

%
% What are your application(s)?
aerospace mainly, CFD type of applications.

%
% How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
lots... spread over wide distances

%
% Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
% Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

yes, reduce the latency to initiate message send/receive.

we are interested in using PVM with ATM for the bandwidth but also the
bandwidth-distance product (supporting geographically distributed
computing). The price to build a message is so high that it destroys
the benefit of a high-speed network.

all in all, pvm is great - it has opened up a whole new area in
computing.

--
Patrick Dowd
+1 (716) 645-2422 x2127
dowd@eng.buffalo.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: optim@bellcore.com (Tami Carpenter)

Are you using PVM today.

 Not at the moment, but that's mainly because parallel computing
 is not the main thrust of my research and I'm not currently working
 on anything that would warrant parallelization.

What are your applications?

 Stochastic optimization problems that arise in telecommunications.
 This is multi-scenario optimization, where the scenarios arise from
 considering different failures in a telecommunication network.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

 Usually, we run using three or four SUN workstations, but we've used
 as many as 8. These workstations are a combination of SPARC2's and
 SPARC10's.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Pinakin Kanubhai Patel <pkpatel@engin.umich.edu>

>Are you using PVM today?

NO

>What are your application(s)?

Contaminant flow and transport through porous media which
is expressed as a set of pdes. This is computational expensive,
especially for practical problems, and hence parallelism could
be helpful.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

IBM RS/6000s upto 8 of them .. but I didn't get any
speedup.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jie Zhang <zhang@utdallas.edu>

I am currently NOT using PVM.

My potential application of PVM will be in exploration seismology
based on solving acoustic wave equations.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: K P Wang <kpwang@piggy.ucsb.edu>
>
> Are you using PVM today?
>

Yes.

> What are your application(s)?

finite element analysis, finite difference analysis, numerical
integrations. developing portable CFD codes.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

SGI, SUN, HP, DEC ALPHA, DEC station, PC LINUX.

>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
>

Thank you very much.

Kai-Ping Wang
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <fatica@orlandi3.ing.uniroma1.it>

> Are you using PVM today?
 We are starting

> What are your application(s)?
 Parallel version of our CFD codes for DNS (Direct numerical simulations)
 and LES (Large Eddy Simulations) of incompressible turbulent flows in
 cartesian and cylindrical coordinates.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 We will run on IBM/SP2 and CRAY/T3D

 Massimiliano Fatica
 Ph.D. Student
 Department of Mechanics and Aeronautics
 University of Rome "La Sapienza"
 fatica@orlandi3.ing.uniroma1.it
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: David Jones <jones@bsm.biochemistry.ucl.ac.uk>

1. Yes, I am using PVM.

2. I am using it for computational molecular biology (protein structure
prediction).

3. I am using it on a network of Silicon Graphics machines (Irix 5.2),
 including a multiprocessor Challenge server.

>---------------------------------------------------------------------------<
This message was written, produced and executively directed by Dr David Jones
Email: jones@bsm.bioc.ucl.ac.uk | JANET: jones@uk.ac.ucl.bioc.bsm
Address: Dept. of Biochemistry | Tel: +44 71 387 7050 x3879
and Molecular Biology, University | Fax: +44 71 380 7193
College, London WC1E 6BT, U.K. |
Disclaimer: STANDARD > KEYWORDS : OPINIONS MY OWN NOBODY ELSE'S WHATSOEVER
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: stoffel@no2sun.cray.com (Jim Stoffel)
>
> Are you using PVM today?
Yes.
>
> What are your application(s)?
Confidence tests for CRI T3D.
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
I am using CRI's PVM on the T3D.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: sabrams@deslab.mit.edu (S. Abrams)

PVM survey

Are you using PVM today?

A program using PVM was completed in August 1994 as part of a Master's
thesis by a student who has since left MIT. The program is still used.

What are your application(s)?

We had previous produced a system for robustly calculating regions of
specified curvature in a Bezier (bivariate parametric) surface using
a newly developed interval-based equation solver. To generalize the
problem, this was modified to work for B-spline surfaces. The program
works by subdividing the B-spline into its constituent Bezier patches,
calculating regions for each patch and then recombining them. Each
Bezier patch is worked on as an autonomous process, using PVM to
coordinate and schedule the processes on multiple machines.

How many and what kind of machines have used with PVM?

We have run our program using PVM with one to eight machines, all Silicon
Graphics workstations, a mixture of Personal IRIS 4D-25, 4D-35, 4D-120,
Indigo2, and Indy.

If you have any more questions about our work, please contact me by
telephone at: (617) 253-7799, or e-mail at: sabrams@deslab.mit.edu.

Stephen L. Abrams
MIT Ocean Engineering Design Laboratory

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: trfaulk@california.sandia.gov (faulkner thomas r)

> Are you using PVM today?

I have used PVM on a Paragon at a number of times. I also provide
support for PVM for other users on the Paragon.

> What are your application(s)?

Seismic ray-tracing
Function optimization testbeds
Molecular Dynamics
Materials science and Quantum Chemistry

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

The Paragon and SUN, SGI, HP, DEC and IBM workstations.

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

My main complaint about PVM is that if anything goes wrong
I often have to put printf into the daemon to get an idea
what is wrong. As such, I have had to become far too much
of an expert in the daemon and libraries than I like.

				-- Tom Faulkner
				 Parallel System Engineer
				 Intel Supercomputers
				 Sandia National Laboratories,
				 California
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: mike@doug.med.utah.edu (Mike O'Reilly)

 I am using PVM today.

 I use PVM in image reconstruction. For each projection the processing
can be done in parallel.

 I have used up to 16 Suns, running a variety of OS.

 Mike O'Reilly, Ph.D.
 Medical Imaging Research Lab
 Department of Radiology
 U of Utah.

 mike@fermi.med.utah.edu

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Francisco J. Prieto" <fjp@eco.uc3m.es>

- Are you using PVM today?

Yes

- What are your application(s)?

We have been working on the development of a medium-long
term planning algorithm for electric utilities that takes
into account uncertainty in the demand and the availability of
water resources.

We have to solve a large stochastic optimization problem, and
we use some decomposition approaches, very well suited for
its solution in a distributed environment.

- How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

We have used two clusters of workstations:
 1 HP 730 and 3 HP 720
 3 HP 715/50

Thank you very much for your interest, and for your work.

Sincerely,

- Francisco J. Prieto

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "HYNEK JIRI - FAV" <HYNEK00@JONAS.ZCU.CZ>
:
: Are you using PVM today?
: YES
: What are your application(s)?
: PURELY ACADEMIC
: How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
: circa 10, SILICON GRAPHICS WORKSTATIONS
: Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
 PVM IS GREAT!
: Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
:
: Your help is much appreciated.
:
: Best wishes,
: THE SAME TO YOU
The PVM Project Team
:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: renato@ticam.utexas.edu (renato silva)

 Dear PVM Project Team

 I'm using PVM 3.2.6 to solve CFD problems,
 at this moment we are solving the convection-
 diffusion equation and begin to implement the
 Euler's equations. This basis of those application
 are the distributed version of the GMRES method for
 solving the linear system of equations.
 We are using 16 IBM RISC 6000 model 3BT,
 interconnected by FDDI.

 Best wishes

 Renato Silva
 renato@ticam.utexas.edu
 rssr@server01.lncc.br

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: choiy@sun.eng.wayne.edu (Yongsuk Choi)

Hi!

I've used PVM for one semester for my project and research.

I was very impressed for the easy learning curve of PVM.

PVM is a powerful tool for curcurrent programming.

But, I feel some of PVM features should be improved.

First, communication speed is slow when I use PVM_SEND and PVM_RECV.

That means, more you communicate more you will be slow down your program.

When I used PVM for an image compression techniques, I measured that the program with PVM is slower

than program with normal C language.

Since many people like me use PVM for parallel computing platforms, communication speed is critical for

those projects.

I hope great success in your PVM project. Thank You for PVM

Best Wishes,
		Yongsuk Choi

		e-mail: choiy@sun.eng.wayne.edu
			choiy@nova.eng.wayne.edu

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jean Lorre <jjl@telescope.JPL.NASA.GOV>

We used PVM initially, then converted to RPC's because the latter didn't
require any delivery of software to our customers, at least that was the
excuse our systems people used.

The application was to have many platforms refer to a single data base on
one sun. It was a spacecraft navigation data base which any user could
update or read from.

The machines were sun-4 solaris vax-vms alpha-vms sgi and hp

I found pvm very easy to use and rpc's impossible to understand. An
expert had to be called in to convert to rpc's. I'm an applications guy
and take no interest in screwing with the operating system. Thanks for a
nice product. Too bat we didn't keep using pvm.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: ncs@cs.rit.edu (Nan C Schaller)

> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

> What are your application(s)?

I have students using it to do master's projects and have students
using it to do parallel graphics projects in undergraduate and
graduate courses in computer science at Rochester Institute of
Technology.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

 PVM version 3.3.6 is installed on:
 62 Sun SPARCstation 2s running SunOS 4.1.3_U1
 1 Sun 4/380 running SunOS 4.1.3_U1
 21 Sun SLCs running SunOS 4.1.3_U1
 21 SGI Indys running IRIX 5.2.

____________________________________________________________________________

Nan C. Schaller 				Phone: +1.716.475.2139
Rochester Institute of Technology		Fax: +1.716.475.7100
Computer Science Department			Internet: ncs@cs.rit.edu
102 Lomb Memorial Dr. 				OR ncsics@ritvax.isc.rit.edu
Rochester, NY 14623-5608			BITNET: ncsics@ritvax.bitnet
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: rssr@server01.lncc.br (Renato Simoes Silva)

 Dear PVM Project Team

 I'm using PVM 3.2.6 to solve CFD problems,
 at this moment we are solving the convection-
 diffusion equation and begin to implement the
 Euler's equations. This basis of those application
 are the distributed version of the GMRES method for
 solving the linear system of equations.
 We are using 16 IBM RISC 6000 model 3BT,
 interconnected by FDDI.

 Best wishes

 Renato Silva
 renato@ticam.utexas.edu
 rssr@server01.lncc.br

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <buchanan@bme8.utmem.edu>

Are you using PVM today?
	We are just starting to. I awaited the arrival of a particular graduate
student who wanted to continue a particular project.

What are your application(s)?
Electrical propagation in the heart, toward understanding causes of sudden
cardiac death. We will attempt to port a model previously run on a Convex which
uses the Microelectronics Center of North Carolina developed Spice like circuit
analysis program CAZM where the "devices" are membrane segments and the
current-voltage relationships are from the biological literature. These models
need to have 100,000 to 1,000,000 or more nodes to be useful and are both memory
and computation intensive.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
To get started, 3 DECstation 5000 RISC machines (Ultrix 4.4)
		1 DEC Alpha 500X (OSF1 3.0)
Ultimately: several other DECstations
		another Alpha
		IBM RS6000

Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

It would be helpful to me if you know someone who has ported CAZM to PVM and
also how well such programs (i.e. Spice) work in the PVM environment.

Jack Buchanan, MSEE, MD
Assoc. Prof of Medicine and Biomedical Engineering
Director, Memphis Educational Computer Connectivity Alliance
University of Tennessee, Memphis
899 Madison Ave, Suite 801
Memphis, TN 38112

buchanan@bme1.utmem.edu
buchanan.jack@memphis.va.gov
buchanan@mecca.org
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <zaki@cs.rochester.edu>

Are you using PVM today?
Yes.

What are your application(s)?
We have parallelized matrix programs like Matrix multiplication, Transpose,
Cholesky Factorization, 2D-FFT, etc. and benchmarks from Livermore Kernel, PERFECT,
etc.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
We have used SUN Sparcstation 1, SUN Sparcstation 5, SUN Sparcstation 10,
SUN Sparcstation LX, SUN 10/2000 multiprocessor, and SGI Challenge multiprocessor.

-Mohammed Javeed Zaki

--
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Mohammed Javeed Zaki email :- zaki@cs.rochester.edu
Computer Science Dept. off. :- 716-275-5605
University of Rochester res. :- 716-272-8375
Rochester NY 14627 home add:-239 B Quinby Rd. Rochester NY 14623
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Ian Glendinning <igl@par.soton.ac.uk>

> Could you take a moment to answer three questions.

Sure.

> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

> What are your application(s)?

The PARKBENCH and GENESIS benchmark suites.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Meiko CS-2, Silicon Graphics workstation cluster, Parsytec GC/PP.

> Your help is much appreciated.

You're welcome.
 Ian
--
Ian Glendinning HPC Centre, Computing Services
igl@par.soton.ac.uk University of Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK
Tel: +44 703 592594 WWW URL: http://hpcc.soton.ac.uk/staff/igl.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jian Huang <jhuang@tech.iupui.edu>

1. We are using PVM today.
2. Our application is the parallel computation of fluid dynamics.
3. We have about 10 Sun SPARC workstations and 3 IBM RS6000 workstations here.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Bob Bagwill <bagwill@sst.ncsl.nist.gov>

> Are you using PVM today?

Yes

> What are your application(s)?

Just a demo, running xpvm and xep/mtile.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Linux, Sparc/SunOS 4.1.2, OSF386, Sparc/Solaris 2.3, Digital Alpha/OSF1

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

I don't know the system well enough to suggest any.

--
Bob Bagwill
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Angela K. Demke" <demke@eecg.toronto.edu>
>
> Are you using PVM today?

 No. (This is not due to any deficiency with PVM, and I expect to be
using it again in the next several months.

> What are your application(s)?

 Primarily a parallel rendering application.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

 Up to 25 Sun Sparcstations at a time. I have had no opportunities to
take advantages of PVM's heterogenous capabilities.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <mandell@SDSC.EDU>

Are you using PVM today?

Yes

What are your application(s)?

Determining the electrostatic potential energy of interaction
between charged molecules.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

I have used up to 12 DEC Alphas at one time. I am planning
to use a heterogeneous environment of Suns and Decs soon, though.

Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

Usuable interrupt routines for the arrival of a message would
be great.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Paul Gray <pgray@math.msu.edu>

In response to your recent survey request, here is my status on PVM.

I have never used PVM, _but_, I am learning PVM with specific interest in
applying it to modelling of layered superconductors.

Specifically, I'm interested in running PVM on 6 DEC alphas to drive a
FORTRAN program.

Hopefully, by the time the next survey rolls out, I'll be knee-deep in PVM!

-Paul

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: acrobin@sandia.gov (Allen C. Robinson)
 >
 >Are you using PVM today?
I have PVM as a compile time option but it is not used extensively. Mostly
it is used to show feasibility. MPI may take precedence in the future.
 >
 >What are your application(s)?
Shock wave physics
 >
 >How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
SUN,HP,IBM,SGI - Maximum number of nodes ever = 24 on an SP2.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Len Myers <lmyers@rutabaga.csc.calpoly.edu>

 1. Yes (am using it now)
 2. To support distributed expert systems. (usage)
 3. HP 700s, IBM RS6000s, and SUN3s & 4s. (on what machines)
-len myers-

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: roscoe@BUCRF15.BU.EDU (Roscoe C. Giles)
>
>Are you using PVM today?
Yes, we are.
>
>What are your application(s)?
We (the Center for Computational Science at Boston University) perform a
range of scientific and educational computing functions. My particular use
for PVM ha been in educating students about parallel computing paradigms
and algorithms.
>
>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
CM-5, SGI, SUN
>

==============================================================
Roscoe C. Giles
Center for Computational Science, and
Dept. of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering
Boston University
44 Cummington Street, Boston, MA, 02215
(617) 353-6082
roscoe@roscoe.bu.edu
http://roscoe.bu.edu/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: adilger@enel.ucalgary.ca (Andreas Dilger)

> Are you using PVM today?

Although I have downloaded PVM, I have not had a chance to use it yet.

> What are your application(s)?

The initial reason for downloading PVM was for running distributed ray-tracing,
namely POV-ray. However, there is also a desire to have a distributed MPEG
encoding and decoding system. I also want to implement a distributed fractal
video compressor as part of my master's thesis.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

The majority of machines will be SUN SPARC 2, SPARC 5, and SPARC 10 uniprocessor
systems. Depending on avaliability, there may also be a large number of
DEC 125? systems (with MIPS R3000 processors).

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

The one feature that I would like to see implemented would be the use of the
'speed' field when assigning hosts. The actual values used would be a metric
dependant on the application being run, but if there were some benchmark values
given for common architectures, it would avoid the need for storing separate
initialization files. The application could then scale its values to give
approximately the standard value.

Ideally, one should be able to modify this value while running to take into
account load conditions, and possibly network transmission time. The load
and transmission time should probably be kept as separate values, since a fast
machine at a distant location should actually get larger chunks to process,
to reduce the transmission lag.

One other thing that comes to mind is if it is possibleto distribute a 'C' only
library, since nobody uses the Fortran library here, and I have spent some
time taking out the fortran parts of the code.

My apologies if any of this has already been implemented, since I haven't used
the library yet. This is only based on a preliminary look. Otherwise, it
looks very useful, and it will save me lots of effort in making distributed
code. Have a happy new year.

--
Andreas Dilger | University of Calgary "If a man ate a pound of pasta
 Lab:(403)220-8792 | Micronet Research Group and a pound of antipasto, would
Office:(403)220-4716 | Elec & Comp Engineering they cancel out, leaving him
<http://www-mddsp.enel.ucalgary.ca/People/adilger> still hungry?" -- Dogbert
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: arbogast@masc29.rice.edu (Todd Arbogast)

We have incorporated a PVM option in our code: RPARSim (Rice Parallel
Aquifer and Reservoir Simulator). This simulated petroleum or
groundwater subsurface flow, and the transport of dissolved chemical
species that may be chemically reactive and/or radioactive. I have run
it on a collection of SUN SPARC2's.

We call PVM from an "MPI-like" library of generic message passing
calls. This library can call the actual message passing calls of
Intel, PICL, PVM, CM5, and null (serial).

 -- Todd Arbogast
 Department of Computational
 and Applied Mathematics
 Rice University
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: agaqb@vis-crimson.inre.asu.edu (Ali Benmalek)

Here are answers to your questions in your PVM survey:

Q:
 Are you using PVM today?
A:
 Yes, I am using PVM today
Q:
 What are your application(s)?
A:
 Large three-dimensional radiative-transfer finite-element Fortran
 code.
Q:
 How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
A:
 Used PVM to run the code in parallel in a cluster of workstations.
 Workstations include multiprocessor SUN SPARC, SGI's (4D-series,
 Crimson) and IBM RS/6000.

Additional comments and suggestions:

 1- Need more types of data in PVMFPACK, ect...
 Important data types for scientific (particularly, engineering
 and numerical analysis) Fortran applications include
 DOUBLE-PRECISION real and integer numbers, COMPLEX numbers, and
 LOGICAL and CHARACTER variables.

 2- Need timing subroutines to be used in Fortran and C programs.
 Now, there are difficulties in evaluating accurately run times
 of applications in different processors or workstations.

 3- Put more features in XPVM.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: klie@masc47.rice.edu (Hector Manuel Klie)

> Are you using PVM today?

 Yes.
>
> What are your application(s)?

 Reservoir Simulation Engineering.
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
 No more than 4, just for debugging purposes...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: shawn@targa.llnl.gov (Shawn Dawson)

Are you using PVM today?

YES

What are your application(s)?

ATMOSHPERHIC and LAND modeling simulation at Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

8 SGI workstations

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Anthony P. Leclerc" <leclerc@tony.cs.cofc.edu>

Currently, I'm not using PVM. However, last semester, I used PVM in
my Parallel Processing class. We used it on a distributed network
of Ultrix Workstations. My original plan was to use the Intel Paragon
at the University of South Carolina, but this fell through.

The applications I run are simple labs (Simpson's rule for integration for
example). However, I have written a parallel global optimization solver.
I wrote this to work on a distributed network of UNIX workstations using
sockets. I will be re-writing using PVM, and hopefully implement it on
the Intel Paragon.

I enjoyed using PVM.

A question for you: If I use PVM for the parallel communication part of
my parallel algorithm, can I market it, or do I owe you something, or can
I even do this. If not, I will be "cleaning up" my socket code. I hate
other people having there hands in what I write. Understandably, however,
I see that you may want a share or whatever.

Thanks...Tony Leclerc
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: yih@atom.cs.utah.edu (Benny Yih)

 > Are you using PVM today?
Only occasionally as a baseline to compare other "lighter" weight protcol
implementations.

 > What are your application(s)?
None. I am just running other people's applications [from parkbench, etc.] as
benchmarks, since we are experimenting w/ a sender-based protocol as the
workstation cluster transport.

 > How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
Mostly HP 9000/700s
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Alan G. Yoder" <agy@cse.nd.edu>

> Are you using PVM today?

No.

> What are your application(s)?

Distributed computing research applications.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Up to 8, Sparcs and RS/6000's.

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

Around here, people were waiting for the SP/1 version (using the switch)
to come out in version 3.x. I have sort of lost touch with how that is
going.

The main thing I found frustrating was the difficulty of running
applications from arbitrary places; PVM was extremely balky about
running things from anywhere except a pathname that was hardwired
into the thing at compile time.

Cheers,

Alan

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Alan G. Yoder agy@cse.nd.edu
 Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering http://www.nd.edu/~ayoder
 384 Fitzpatrick +1 219 631 5772 or 5273
 Notre Dame, IN 46556 +1 219 631 9260 dept. fax
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: chaganti@xanth.msfc.nasa.gov (Kris Changanti-ES84/UAH)

Are you using PVM today?
Yes

What are your application(s)?
Class projects for Parallel Processing.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
SGI,SUN,nCUBE,CRAY

Thanks
Krishna Chaganti
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: daasch@ee.pdx.edu (W. Robert Daasch)

>Are you using PVM today?
>
Yes, taking today to mean currently. I didn't run PVM today.

>What are your application(s)?
>
Public domain packages such as Conjugent Gradient.
Homebrew software for a project in analog circuit design.
Last quarter in a graduate level course in Computational
Science. Students were required to use PVM in a small
conductor modeling project.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
Sun, SPARCs and recently began a move to Linux, X86
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Fred M. Staudaher" <fred@airborne.nrl.navy.mil>

1. No, but are developing code locally, which we will conver to PVM, when ported.

2. Application is generation of simulated radar clutter and jamming signals. Large data cube.

3. Haven't used PVM yet, but plan to use MHPCC's SP-2, 50 to 400 nodes.

-------------------------------------
Name: Fred M. Staudaher
E-mail: fred@airborne.nrl.navy.mil (Fred M. Staudaher)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: avtp@trident.datasys.swri.edu (AVTP)

>Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

>What are your application(s)?

We are using PVM to develop distributed/parallel algorithms to calculate
visualization forms (i.e., isosurface, countour map, streamlines, etc.).

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Network of Sun Sparcstations (~8 machines), SparcCenter (6 nodes).

>Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

A previous engineer on the project reported trouble in implementing the
shared-memory version of PVM on our SparcCenter. I do not know if this was
a PVM problem, or if it has been fixed by later versions of PVM.

PVM has been very helpful in our development! We hope it will continue to
be as we move to multicomputer implementations of our algorithms.

One suggestion: it would be useful to have timing or load balancing functions
to include in applications. I recently went through an analysis of an
algorithm we were developing where I had to insert UNIX timing calls and
print them to a file, then develop my own load balancing heuristics.

Since these things are commonly done in a parallel environment, it might
be useful to include them as a toolkit to PVM. Functions that will
"measure" network latency or processor speed would make it easier to
*efficiently* port applications to environments with varying performance
characteristics.

A programmer could include these functions to "measure" the environment when
an application begins, then make load distribution decisions using these
measurements. This seems like a common enough problem.

>Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

>Your help is much appreciated.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joey Baumgartner baumgart@trident.datasys.swri.edu
Computer Integrated Manufacturing (210)522-2494 - Office
Automation and Data Systems Division (210)522-5499 - Fax
Southwest Research Institute
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Richard Boes <rcb@perseus.nl.nuwc.navy.mil>

1. Yes, we use PVM.

2. All of are applications are developed inhouse. Most are simulations
 of naval encounters and tools needed for analysis. PVM is used for
 messaging between cpu's running different platforms.

3. Our environment is made up of 44 MIPS cpus (SGI's of various sizes)
 and 10 HP cpus (HP 735) connected with FDDI and switched ethernet.

I will forward this message to our programming group for comments
and suggestions.

-Richard Boes rcb@perseus.nl.nuwc.navy.mil

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Robert Indik" <indik@math.arizona.edu>

Are you using PVM today?
 yes

What are your application(s)?
 Modeling semiconductor light amplifiers+lasers,
 study of spontaneous pattern formation in PDE's

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 CM5 (128 nodes),
 SP2(256 nodes),
 Silicon Graphis Indy (1),
 Crimson(1),
 Sun spracstation 2, and IPC's (23)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: liy@osram.sylvania.com (Yan-Ming Li)

My answers are (1) No, (2) pvm 3.23 installed on hp735 running hpux 9.01,
plans to run on 4-5 hp720-735-755. (3) numerical PDE based on method of lines
and DAE.

Cheers,
Yan-ming Li
OSRAM SYLVANIA INC.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Michele Freed <mfreed@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
>
>Are you using PVM today?
No but will in late Spring, or maybe MPICH
>
>What are your application(s)?
adaptive routing simulations
>
>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
etherneted network of SUNS.

>
>Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
>Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
MPI allows one to create datastructures to send and has more
diverse broadcasting ( according to standard). I really like
the ability to send my own data structures over going through
the data bytes and re-storing into a structure. Granted the
creation of datastructures in MPI is not that straight forward.

-Michele Freed
 email: mfreed@uiuc.edu | voice: 217-244-8409

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <edh@noc.cis.umn.edu>
>
> Are you using PVM today?

No.

> What are your application(s)?

I wrote a ray tracer using PVM about 9 months ago, in C++ with InterViews.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Mostly a couple of dozen Suns, but I tried it out on a MIPS-OS variant with
four CPUs. I couldn't get the interface between the console on a Sun and
the pvmd on the MIPS box to work though, so I just used Suns.

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

I found PVM easy to use and very useful. I would like to use it further
some day. I would even find it interesting to be a part of the PVM project
team if the opportunity arose.

--
"The climate of Bombay is such that its inhabitants have to live elsewhere."

Eric D. Hendrickson Damnit! I can't stop the heterocyclic declination!
Central Computing Services University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, USA
 I came to confess. *I* was the second gunman on the grassy knoll....
<a href="http://www.umn.edu/~edh">Eric.Hendrickson-1@umn.edu</a> 612/626-7761
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <crabb@hpc.pko.dec.com>

Are you using PVM today?	yes

What are your application(s)?

	fluid dynamics
	proprietary benchmarks.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

	Digital 5000 (mips based), 2100, 3000, 7000 8000 (Alpha based) series

Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

	We are having some difficulty in moving from pvm 3.3 to
	3.3.4 and pvm 3.5. I saw Al at SC95 but never got data back
	to him on what the problem is. I will send you more info
	as I try to work out what the problem is, but basically I get
	a "cannot open pvmd" error when I try to add hosts.
	/Charlie.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: satyan@au-bon-pain.lcs.mit.edu (Satyan R. Coorg)

Are you using PVM today?
We used PVM for an assignment in a course taught here at MIT by
Prof. Arvind ("Dataflow Languages and Computer Architectures").
We primarlily used the PVM to show the contrast between explicit
forking/message passing versus implicit parallelism.

What are your application(s)?
The students programmed a successive-overrelaxation kernel.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
We used it on Sun-4's

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: ess@arsc.edu (Michael Ess)

Are you using PVM today?	Yes

What are your application(s)? Molecular modeling and game searches

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

 Currently on the T3D and a network of SGIs
 In the past on a network of SUNs and HPs

Mike Ess
Arctic Region Supercomputing Center		Work 907-474-5405
P.O. Box 756020					Fax 907-474-5494
Fairbanks, Ak 99775-6020 ess@arsc.edu

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Dhaval N. Shah" <dnshah@top.cis.syr.edu>
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Yes

>
> What are your application(s)?

Running tasks in parallel on a Network of Workstations
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

SUN workstations, 4 to 6
>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

Low latency

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: tigger@petroglyph.cl.msu.edu (Eric Kasten)
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Yes

>
> What are your application(s)?

Mostly research oriented applications, as well as providing a
test bed for systems level programs that may be moved to
a kernel level once the algorithm has proven to be useful.
These applications include networking and distributed
computing across a wide range of topics.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Quantity varies. Anywhere from a few to 50.

Suns, Alphas, i386-i586, RS/6000. OSes include Solaris, OSF/1,
Linux and AIX.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: sy05@PL122c.EECSCC.Lehigh.EDU (Yue Su)

I was using PVM for doing Molecular Dynamics on RISC6000 machines.
It would be more helpful if some one can add more sample subroutines
specially on the subject of scientific calculations. Thanks.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <melz@ISI.EDU>
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

> What are your application(s)?

Parallel Artificial Intelligence- Implementation of a parallel
reasoner (specifically, a description classifier) for Loom, a
state-of-the-art knowledge representation system.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

about 20 workstations, Sparc10s, HP715s, HP720s, Hp730s, and Sun4s.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Murali.Damodaran@ntu.ac.sg
>
> Are you using PVM today?
>
. Yes and just beginning.

> What are your application(s)?

CFD applications. Explorations in Linear Algebra and Mathematics.
Rendering in Computer Graphics applications.
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
Use 4 SGI Indigos plus other platforms. Plan to include SP2
to the cluster of workstations.

=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=
 Murali Damodaran, Sch. of MPE <> Internet: mmurali@ntuix.ntu.ac.sg
 Nanyang Technological University <> mdamodaran@ntuvax.ntu.ac.sg
 Nanyang Avenue, SINGAPORE 2263 <> Phone : 65-799-5599 Fax: 65-791-1859
=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "David Robertson [ITG]" <davidr@george.lbl.gov>

>Are you using PVM today?

No.

>What are your application(s)?

Distributed visualization, for example isosurface generation and
rendering.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Sun's, Cray's, Maspar's (with front ends), DEC Alpha's, SGI Challenger
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Lindsay Bradford <linds@cs.uq.oz.au>

> Are you using PVM today?

Yes

> What are your application(s)?

1) Finding minimal multiplier solutions to the Greatest Common
 Divisor of 10 numbers.

2) Once appropriately familiarised with PVM, will attempt to
 find minimal solution to a problem set by my supervisor. AS
 yet, I do not know the nature of the problem.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

7 Machines at the moment. All are Sparc Stations.

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

Greater explanation of the Message passing system would be lovely.
Detailed examples (and accompanying explanations) on passing messages
from several tasks would be of great help.
 Also.. your discussion on the Resource mamager is minimal. I would
like to know exactly what to expect from the Virtual Machine using
the Resource Manager. Eg - What is a acceptable system load on a machine
before the RM decides no to schedule a task to it? Is the task somehow
made 'nice' for machines with small enough loads?

The Planet Erbierso is very famous for | My views are MINE! |
it's Exotic Fish Meat but is beset by | You can't have 'em! |
Deadly Edible Arts Graduates. | |
 Galaxy #4 - Elite. | linds@cs.uq.oz.au |

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: sylvain@cfassp45.harvard.edu (Sylvain G. Korzennik)
>
> Are you using PVM today?

 Yes. I have recently upgraded from 3.2.0 to 3.3.6

> What are your application(s)?

 HPCC applications in Helioseismology, ie specific data analysis

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

 Sparc cluster: SS2 and SS10, as development platform
 Sparc SMP: SS1000 4-8 procs, as production
 SGI SMP: Power serie (R4400 and R8000), 4-8 procs, as production
 Intel's Paragon (CCSF, CIT), under developemnt
 TMC's CM5 (NRL and UMIACS), under developemnt
 T3D (JPL), under developemnt

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

 PGON: stderr and stdout of children was not yet (at the time) redirected to
 /tmp/pvml.<id>
 T3D: pvm_spawn() was not yet (at the time) supported

 XPVM (under 3.3.6) is a great tool, but it is taking a lot of resources
(tk/tcl overhead?). Also, when building `space-time' and `utilization' views
from a trace file, it is surprising slow (on a SS10), (un-)zooming features
are also slow. I haven't yet found any documentation on pvmgs, that I suspect
is the tool that generates the trace file. It would be nice to be able to
generate a trace file w/out starting XPVM, and later analyze w/ XPVM that
trace file.

 Cheers,
 Sylvain.
--
 http://cfassp45.harvard.edu:1080/ "The world couldn't exist without madmen"
 Maimonides
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: evank@zeus.di.uoa.ariadne-t.gr (Evangelos Koutsompinas)
>
> Are you using PVM today?
>
My first involvement with PVM was last year at the QUEEN MARY & WESTFIELD
COLLEGE of LONDON UNIVERSITY, England. Over there, I installed PVM and used
it as the tool to implement a dissertation project.
This year I installed PVM at the network at ATHENS UNIVERSITY, DEPARTMENT OF
INFORMATICS, Greece and did a couple of lectures about it. I don't know about
QMW COLLEGE, but here in Athens people are going to be using it a lot within
the following months.

> What are your application(s)?
>
At QMW I implemented a theoretical model called SAPS (Self Adaptive Parallel
Servers) intended for parallel MPI hardware. The outcome is a software platform
that provides two types of user interfaces and a load balancing scheme:

 i) there is a C API for programmers who wish to develop services that can
 parallelize requests and achive speedup by using worker workstations.
 The SAPS system automates request decomposition and assignment of
 work fragments to workers (this also includes data send & receive).
 A service program must comply to the SPMD model as it is an application
 spawn over a number of workstations.

 ii) there is a C API for programmers who wish to use already existent services
 by providing a transparent way to find the desired service (by using a
 name service technique) and also transmit the input and collect and patch
 together the output data.

iii) because resourses are not limitless, SAPS is using a given number of
 workstations (pool) and helps already running services share it. It is
 using a load balancing real time aloocation of workers from the pool to
 services always maintaining a uniform workers / task load ratio for
 all services.

At ATHENS UNIVERISTY we are using PVM in order to implement another model
using MPI that can be a system independent framework for parallel application
development (i.e. this has already been finished for a Parcytec GCel machine).
Several students will also take part in this projects by programming modules
of the code as dissertation projects.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
At QMW I've used a network of Apple MACs running A/UX, Apple's version of UNIX.
Eventhough I played with the PVM source code, I couldn't get it to communicate
with machines other than MACs as there was a problem with XDR. After that, I
used 8 SUN4 and 2 SGI machines together facing no problems.
At ATHENS UNIVERSITY we have PVM installed and running on a network of SUN4
(25) and a Convex machine connected with 4 powerfull HP workstations via FDDI.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: kmlee@sun.hallym.ac.kr (Kwang-mo Lee)

> Are you using PVM today?

 Yes, we installed PVM about Sep. 1994.

> What are your application(s)?

 Now, we are testing the PVM systems, and we will use this systems
 on parallel programming research area.
 We have a plan to use it on the specific applications such as weather
 forecasiong, parallel simulation etc.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

 We installed this systems on 5 SUN-4, and 1 SUN-3 systems now
 but we will extend to some more machines later.

 Kwang-Mo Lee

==========================================================================
		 			Prof. Dr. Kwang-Mo Lee
 Department of Computer and Information Engineering
 					 Hallym University
 #1 Ockchun-dong Chunchon Kangwon-do 200-702 South Korea
		 Tel +82-361-58-1452, Fax +82-361-56-3421
		 E-mail : kmlee@sun.hallym.ac.kr
==========================================================================

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Shuichi Terauchi <tera@lang1.bs1.fc.nec.co.jp>

Dear pvm-survey, My name is Shuichi Tearuchi.

> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

> What are your application(s)?

I used "ScaLAPACK".

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

NEC SX-3 and NEC EWS4800.

Yours sincerely

------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Shuichi Terauchi NEC Corp. 1st Language Development Division
 e-mail tera@lang1.bs1.fc.nec.co.jp
 Tel +81-423-33-1256 FAX +81-423-33-1962
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Ted Grzesik <tedg@apollo.hp.com>
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Yes, but only for testing purposes.

>
> What are your application(s)?

Small, test applications used to test concepts of parallelism.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Network of HP-UX workstations. Using about 4 machines at any one time.

>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

Get rid of xdr encoding in favor of ndr encoding.

Ted Grzesik Massachusetts Language Lab Hewlett-Packard Company
tedg@apollo.hp.com Chelmsford, MA (508) 436-5959
"Contrariwise", continued Tweedledee, "If it was so, it might be;
and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic."
 -- Lewis Carroll
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: rkg@iitk.ernet.in (r k ghosh)

> Are you using PVM today?
>
 Yes I have just been able to install pvm 3.3.6 today

> What are your application(s)?

 I will use it for teaching a course on Parallel Computing

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

 We have just been able to use 10 SUN3 m/c. We would like
 to see if DEC-Alpha and HP9000 m/c can also be used as
 additional hosts too alongwith SUN3s.

/==================================================================\
| R. K. Ghosh | Tel: (91)(512) 257645/257638 (Off) |
| Email: rkg@iitk.ernet.in | (91)(512) 258480 (Res.) |
| | Fax: (91)(512)250260/250007 |
|------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Address Correspondence to: |
| Dr. R. K. Ghosh, Department of Computer Science & Engg. |
| Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur 208 016, (INDIA) |
\==================================================================/
______________________________________________________
Gautam Barua, Head CSE & CC, IIT Kanpur 208016 India
gb@iitk.ernet.in FAX:+91-512-250260/250007
phone: 257252(O), 258228(R)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: cheekong@iss.nus.sg (Chui Chee Kong)

> Are you using PVM today?
Yes, I did.

> What are your application(s) ?
I am building a distributed numerical computing library.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
in the range of 4 to 16 consists of SUN (SS2, SS10, SS20) and
SGI Indigo workstations.

more effort should be spent in improving the performance
of PVM on high speed network such as ATM. I heard of the
PVM-ATM. But I have not tried it out.

hope the info is sufficient.

chee kong
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Aad van der Steen <A.vanderSteen@cc.ruu.nl>
Dear PVM Team,

Answer 1: Yes, we are using PVM3 currently.

Answer 2: Presently we use PVM for the solution of sparse linear
 systems and for many dense linear algebra operations.

Answer 3: We use PVM on SUNs (SunOs 4, Solaris), DEC Alpha,
 Convex C220, and SGI R4400 systems.

Best Regards,
Aad van der Steen
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: cwh@ltthp5.epfl.ch (Carl HUSTAD)
>
> Are you using PVM today?
 Yes
>
> What are your application(s)?
 Unstructured parallel Navier-Stokes computations for 3D
 turbomachinery CFD.
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 On cluster of RISC based workstations ( 8 HP-730's) and
 Cray T3D with upto 256 processors.
>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
 PVM is slow on the T3D, hence I use the Cray shmem routines.
 This doubles performance. Again on workstation clusters I find
 that best size for my type of problem is 3 to 6 machines.

> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
>
 I think PVM is an excellent tool and is an essential first
 step for industry wanting to start in parallel computing. The
 reason for this is because the software is public domain and
 runs on their existing hardware.

 Keep up the good work. Regards Carl Hustad, LTT/EPFL, Switzerland.
>

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <vdweide@alpha6.vki.ac.be>

I used PVM for the last time a few months ago.
The application is CFD. At the moment this is 3D Euler, but the intention for
the futere is 3D Navier-Stokes.
The reason why I am not using it today it that I am developing new schemes and
this takes a while.
I use the Digital ALPHA and I have done some test problems with 4 machines.

Edwin.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: stevenso@win.tue.nl (Rob Stevenson)
>
> Are you using PVM today?

I used PVM about a year ago.

>
> What are your application(s)?

My application was multi-grid.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

About twenty SUN workstations.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Markus Schwehm <schwehm@informatik.uni-erlangen.de>

> Are you using PVM today?

Yes

> What are your application(s)?

My application is a distributed genetic algorithm package (VPGA).
The package had been developed last year and is now used to solve
a large scale manufacturing problem (optimal partition and kanban
allocation for JIT production lines).

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

The package has been tested on a (homogeneous) cluster of 23 SUN
workstations and on a smaller cluster of Linux PCs. We were not able to
compile it on HP workstations (exept for a single-workstation version)

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

A connection of PVM to the MasPar MP-1/2 woud be appreciated. We use PVM
mainly for starting and initializing the master-slave-type algorithm. The
actual data communication is realized via files, which is faster as we have
measured (only one process change instead of two). Moreover this allows to
continue the algorithm after a breakdown.

___________________________________________________________________/_____
Markus Schwehm Tel.: x/9131/85-7617 M assiv
Uni Erlangen - IMMD 7 Fax.: x/9131/85-7409 P arallele
Martensstr. 3 http://www7.informatik.uni-erlangen.de/~schwehm G enetische
D-91058 Erlangen schwehm@immd7.informatik.uni-erlangen.de A lgorithmen

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: thorhaue@adam.cs.TU-Magdeburg.DE (Steffen Thorhauer)

Dear PVM Project Team,

> Are you using PVM today?

 Yes I use pvm 3.3.5 regularly at home.

> What are your application(s)?

 I use the pvmpovray patch and so I use the parallel povray program.
 Povray is a raytracer.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

 4 pc: intel/amd 486/66MHz linux 1.1.59

I'm looking for a good fractal program for pvm with more fractal types
than the xep demo program.

 Thanks.

 Steffen

--
**********************************************************************
* EMail: thorhaue@sunpool.cs.tu-magdeburg.de *
**********************************************************************
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: haberj@mathematik.tu-muenchen.de (Joerg Haber)
>
> Are you using PVM today?
Yes.

> What are your application(s)?
Computer graphics (ray tracing, radiosity).

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
At most 110 HP 9000/720 + 4 SGI Indigo + 5 SUN SparcStation[2,10] +
2 PC (Linux). During development just 2-3 Indigos and 2 PC's.

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
What about a function that gives me the current speed of a machine (depending
on current load and processor speed)? Would be helpful for load balancing...

Thanks a lot for making PVM available to the public. For me it is very
helpful and efficient.
Regards,
Joerg

--
 Joerg Haber (SCM) EMail: haberj@mathematik.tu-muenchen.de
 Mathematisches Institut Tel.: 49-89-21058128
 TU Muenchen
 D-80290 Muenchen

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Zdenek Salvet <salvet@informatics.muni.cz>

> Are you using PVM today?

 Yes.

> What are your application(s)?

 Paralelization of graph algorithms.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

 ~15 machines : SUN4SOL2,SGI,PC/NetBSD

--
 Zdenek Salvet
 salvet@informatics.muni.cz
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 If Murphy's Law can go wrong, it will.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: truong@onera.fr (tel 31-87)

 Dear PVM project team,
 I'm not using PVM today, but I plan to use it in a near future to compute
loads on a helicopter blade.
 Sincerely yours,
 Truong V. K.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Seon-Tae Kim <kim@samweis.cadlab.de>

Are you using PVM today?

yes, i using a today.

What are your application(s)?

nummerical calculation.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

sun4 and linux.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Utz.Wever@zfe.siemens.de (Utz Wever)

Dear Colleagues,

we are applying PVM very successfully in VLSI, see
(Schneider, M., Wever, U. Zheng, Q.: Parallel Harmonic Balance.
VLSI Grenoble (1993) ) and (Kleis, U., Wallat, O., Wever, U., Zheng, Q.: Domain Decomposition Methods for Circuit Simulation. Proceedings of for Circuit Simulation. Proceedings of the 8th Workshop
on Parallel and Distributed Simulation. Edinburgh (1994)).

We are also working on Domain Decomposition methods for
drift diffusion equations in process simulation (dopand diffusion or
point defect simulation).

Most of the time we combine about 10 workstations of the
architectures SUN4 and HPPA (mixed). We do not succeed in combining
the architectures SUN4 and SUNMP (solaris). The solaris processes do not answer. Is there any bug known ?

Finally we want to thank you for your effort in developing
this outstanding software. If one want to be portable, there is
no alternative to PVM.

 With best regards U. Wever
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Olivier.Ondoa@imag.fr (Olivier ONDOA)

> Could you take a moment to answer three questions.

	Sure.

> Are you using PVM today?

	Yes, I am actually completing an implementation of PVM over an ATM
	simulated network, in order to perform some network performance
	evaluation studies, and to prepare an eventual implementation of
	PVM over ATM physical network, similar to the version 3.3.2 released
	by the Distributed Multimedia Center and Computer Science Departement
	of the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis, in collaboration with
	both Minnesota Supercomputer Center Inc. and Army High-Performance
	Computing Research Center.

> What are your application(s)?

	I wrote two popular distributed applications: parallel matrix
	multiplication and parallel linear equations system resolution using the
	the Gauss algorithm, to become familiar with the system.
	But, as soon as I finish the aforementionned implementation, I need some
	PVM Benchmarks for simulation purposes. Then if any body knows where and
	how to get these Benchmarks, please let me know.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

	I have been using up to 10 (it could be largely more) workstations,
	running UNIX and interconnected via an Ethernet LAN. Our workstations
	set consist of Sparc (5,10,20) and Sun IPX machines.

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

	I am not going to be original by saying that, the PVM system is great
	tool.

> Best wishes,
> The PVM Project Team

	And to you.

Regards,

Olivier (Olivier.Ondoa@imag.fr).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: chris.eaton@aea.orgn.uk (Christine Eaton 3277)

We have done some preliminary studies, and are about to start on a real
project using PVM.

The application is a Monte Carlo radiation shielding code, called
MCBEND. This tracks neutrons and photons through complex geometries.
Being a Monte Carlo code it can take a long time to get good
statistics.

A customer in the oil well logging field - a big application area for
MCBEND - has installed an IBM supercomputer, made up of 28 IBM RISC
processors. We plan to produce a Parallel MCBEND for them.

We use SUN Microsystems workstations, so we will develop the PVM MCBEND
using our own machines, of which we have a large number, then port it
to the AIX environment.

We have found the recent manual and the whole PVM system easy to use.

Ewan Webster
AEA Technology
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Eric S Fraga <eric@mathematics.edinburgh.ac.uk>

pvm-survey@edu.utk.cs writes:
 > Are you using PVM today?

yes

 > What are your application(s)?

optimization in chemical engineering. specifically, for the automated
synthesis of chemical processes.

also for the development of a multiuser multitasking design environment.

 > How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

up to 13 networked Sun SPARCstations.

 > Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

none. i'm very happy with PVM 3.

--
........oo...ooo..o..o.o...o.o....oooo..oo...o.....o.....ooo..o..............
 Eric S Fraga, ECOSSE group, Dept of Chemical Engineering, Univ of Edinburgh
 phone: +44 (31) 650 5065/8565, eric.fraga@ed.ac.uk na.fraga@na-net.ornl.gov
 URL http://www.chemeng.ed.ac.uk/people/eric.html

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Sabina Rips <sabina@sophia.uni-paderborn.de>

Hallo!

> Are you using PVM today? yes
>
> What are your application(s)? distributed runtime-systems for concurrent
				 logic programming languages
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
				4 Sun workstations (SunOS 4.1.3)
				 (2 SPARCs, 1 ELC, 1 Classic)

Bye,

 Sabina

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: vinicio@ele.puc-rio.br (Enrique Vinicio Erazo [94.1])

PVM survey

Dear PVM Project Team,

I'm using PVM too. I have two principal groups of applications running on PVM:

	- A library to implement a distributed system environment that present
	 a high-level interface based in reconfigurable, interconnectable
	 objects. This methodology intend to abstract the moduling,
	 interfacing, configuration, reuse, and paralleling concepts of
	 software systems in order to simplify user's work. A lot of examples
	 were building using this library: computing of PI, solution of
	 Poisson's equation, etc.

	- A system for artificial vision (image classification) using
	 artificial neural networks. For reduce the training times and the
	 recognition times, the system was paralleling using the former
	 library.

The computers used to run these applications are 15 workstations SUN4
(SparcStation 2 with SunOS 4.2) linked with a Ethernet network.

Suggestion:

Is very important in order that applications with extern configuration can
porting your code to any machine with PVM, create PVM primitives for join and
leave a process -different to the calling process- to determinate group.
Example:

	 int inum = pvm_jointogroup(int tid, char *group)
	 int inum = pvm_lvfromgroup(int tid, char *group)

where "tid" is an integer task identifier and "group" is a character string
group name of an existing group. The changes in the Group Server code (pvmgs.c)
aren't very complex.

Enrique Vinicio Carrera E.
Catholic University - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
e-mail: vinicio@ele.puc-rio.br
	vinicio@cygnus.gsc.ele.puc-rio.br
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Kris Van Alsenoy <alsenoy@sch2.uia.ac.be>

 Dear PVM-team,

Yes, I am using PVM for all my calculations.

The calculations I perform are ab-initio Hartree-Fock calculations
on molecules. I use my own program (called BRABO) in which I
implemented your PVM-system and use it to perform calculations
on large molecules (number of basisfunctions > 1000 (if this has
any meaning to you)).

The program runs on a cluster of 3 RS6K's (375, 365 + 320H) and
separately on a mixed cluster of 3 RS6K's () and 2 DECstations (5000/120).
At the moment the DECstations are being replaced by a SUNspark-20 and
I hope to be using PVM on this node shortly.

Hoping this was of some help,
sincerely,
 kris van alsenoy
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Hans Leichtl <hans.leichtl@rz.fh-regensburg.d400.de>

------------------------------ Start of body part 1

Dear PVM-Team,

I'm studying computer science at the Technical University in Regensburg,
Germany. We uses PVM in one of our classes dealing with parallel computing.

We implemented 2 algorithms (soliaire and gauss-seidel) on a SUN pool with
Sparc Classic and Sparc 5 stations (15 machines alltogether) to get a feel
for the advantages and problems related with parallel computing/programming.
So it was a rather short usage of PVM. But I think it's a good tool to use
resources of workstation pools and give people an insight on parallel
computing.

I hope I could help you a little.

-hans

------------------------------ Start of body part 2

-------------------------------------------------
 hans.leichtl@rz.fh-regensburg.d400.de
 computer science department
 fh regensburg; germany
-------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: lp01 <P.Leggett@greenwich.ac.uk>
 *
 * Are you using PVM today?

yes

 *
 * What are your application(s)?

computational mechanics codes. development of semi automatic
tools for conversion of serial f77 to parallel messages passing f77
e.g. pvm, mpi etc
 *
 * How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

sun workstations, up to 12, but speed up only on about 4 on average

 *
 * Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
 * Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

biggest problem for us is communication latency. Debugging using
sun debugger tools has been dificult using pvm 3.x, slaves seem to
hang when attaching debuggers and then continuing execution. (this
is 3.1.2 under solaris 2.3 using 3.0 compilers/debuggers)

--

Peter F. Leggett -- Researcher/Lecturer

(PLEASE NOTE NEW PHONE AND FAX NUMBERS, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY)

Parallel Processing Group
Centre for Numerical Modelling and Process Analysis
University of Greenwich
Wellington Street
Woolwich Tel : +44 (0)181-331-8731
London SE18 6PF Fax : +44 (0)181-331-8665
 \,,,/
Email : P.Leggett@gre.ac.uk (o o)
--------------------------------------------oOO--(_)--OOo----------------|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: davide@di.unito.it (Davide Cavagnino )

I'm a Ph. D. student in Turin (Italy) and I was interested in PVM as
a powerful way to distribute computing. I used the manual only to do
a lesson as a Ph. D. exam but I never used your software even if I
hope I'll use it in the future.

Thank you for giving me the possibility to use the documentation.

 Davide Cavagnino
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: boehm@nolde.informatik.uni-koeln.de (Max Boehm)

> Are you using PVM today

We plan to use PVM for a portable distributed workload balancing algorithm.

> What are your application(s)?

Solving of combinatorical optimization problems (SAT, ...).

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

PowerXplorer with currently 8 nodes (based on the PowerPC chip).
of Parsytec. We use a homogenous version of PowerPVM 3.2 with the
PARIXPPC.H architecture (beta implementation of parsytec).

- Max Boehm

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tel: +49 221/470-5379 email: boehm@informatik.uni-koeln.de
Fax: +49 221/470-5387 Institut fuer Informatik, Pohligstr.1, D-50969 Koeln
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: cfred@ipanema.nce.ufrj.br (Carlos Frederico (Adriano))

Answers to the survey:

Are you using pvm today?
Yes

What are your applications?
three basic applications:
 1> a gaussian elimination program to solve linear equations systems
 2> a convolution program (image processing program) for
smoothing a greyscale image (represented by a 2D matrix)
 3> fractal generation program

How many and what ...?
a cluster of 8 SUN SPARCstations
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: rdb@roke.co.uk (Richard Beton SDH)

At Roke Manor Research Ltd (a company owned by Siemens AG of Germany)
we are using PVM 3.3.5 for several applications:

*) numerical simulations, e.g. radar cross section prediction on
a parallel processor consisting of i860 CPUs with transputer communication
processors, coupled to external Suns and a DEC Alpha. PVM is particularly
used for the workstation interconnection.

*) general workstation connectivity, e.g. data exchange between HP and
Sun workstations for a multi-workstation medical imaging application. One
workstation is dedicated to the MRI scanning image capture, the other to
visualisation, analysis, and surgical therapy planning and assistance.

*) homogeneous workstation connectivity: parallel 'make' of the
software of a larger project. This uses up to 10 Sparcstations for concurrent
compilation of separate software modules for a particular project which
consist of hundreds of such modules.

The workstations on which we have used PVM are:
	Suns running SunOS4
	Suns running SunOS5
	HP 700 series running HP-UX
	Dec Alpha runnning OSF/1

I have one comment regarding the SunOS5 port: PVM 3.3.3 had a particular
difficulty in starting up pvmd daemons. Once up, the daemons operate
correctly until terminated (always with error). PVM 3.3.5 has improved
on this but it is still not perfect. Although it is now much easier to
start the daemons, they still fail more often than is convenient.

Using the console to add a host, the error message when a failure occurs is

libpvm [t40001]: pvm_addhosts(): Pvmd system error

with

[t80040000] waitc_get() cod dm_startack from t80000000 wid 262149 not found

added to the /tmp/pvml.<uid> file.

I hope this information is useful to you.

Regards,
Rick.

--------------------------------------------------
Richard Beton Roke Manor Research Ltd
 Romsey, Hampshire SO50 0ZN

(01794) 833591 fax (01794) 833433
--------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Frederico Liporace" <liporace@VNET.IBM.COM>

 I'm not using PVM now, but intend to use it to train neural networks.
My cluster configuration consists of 5 IBM RS/6K workstations connected by
a FDDI ring.

 Hope to have more to tell in the next year's survey!

 best regards,
 Fred

 PS. One item of my wish list: a collection of C++ classes that encapsulate
 PVM.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <dl@stat.th.u-psud.fr>

dear colleague,

 At present we are just starting the use of PVM on an eight-node SP2 IBM
computer and we have the opportunity to begin the use of T3D Cray
computer.

 Sincerely yours,

 D. Levesque
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Christian.Kebekus@euler.mathematik.uni-dortmund.de (Christian Kebekus)
Subject: Re: PVM survey

>Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

>What are your application(s)?

I'm using PVM for a finite elements package to solve partial differential
equations (especially I use Domain Decomposition Methods).

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

At this moment I use PVM on four SUN Sparc10 workstation. In the future I
want to translate my program to a Parstec Explorer system with 8 nodes
(MPS601, 32MByte).

 _| _| _| _|_|_| 1, rue Maurice Audin
 _| _|_| _|_| _| _| 69518 Vaulx-en-Velin cedex, France
 _| _| _|_| _| _| tel (33) 72 04 70 33
 _| _| _| _| _| sec (33) 72 04 70 31
_| _| _| _| _| _| fax (33) 72 04 70 41
 _|_|_| _| _| _|_|_| @-mail cornet@volnay.entpe.fr

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <kanazawa@icfd.co.jp>

Dear The PVM Project Team.

My name is Eiju Kanazawa.I have two E-mail adress,
kanazawa@nsis.cl.nec.co.jp and kanazawa@icfd.co.jp.
These adresses are same. I live in Tokyo, I use kanazawa@icfd.co.jp
and I live in Tukuba, I use kanazawa@nsis.cl.nec.co.jp.
Don't mind my E-mail adresses, and my poor English......
if you send E-mail, plese send to kanazawa@nsis.cl.nec.co.jp.

I thank PVM and PVM Project Team for enjoy parallel programing, first.

>Are you using PVM today?
No. I don't use PVM, in the last 1 month.

>What are your application(s)?
I made very simple laplace equation, and made animetion.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
I used
 NEC EWS4800/210, EWS4800/260, EWS4800/350,
 PC9801RA21+PANIX(OS)
 SONY NEWS3870
 SGI IRIS4D/210, IRIS4D/350
 CRY YMP/EL4
 CONVEC C2J/IP
 IBM RS6K/320H
 CM? CM2

>Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
>Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

I am very grad that heteros machines can sends and gets the data.
it is very nice.but ,even now , I don't use and understand dynamic
load average system.pvm console command displays same machines ability.
same day, I will try PVM.

 Sincerely yours,
 Eiju Kanazawa

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Dick Wilmoth <wilmoth@ab00.larc.nasa.gov>
>
> Are you using PVM today?
>

Yes.

> What are your application(s)?
>

Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) analysis of rarefied gas flows.
(Space Shuttle, various orbiting and reentry vehicles)

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>

Currently using:

	Three 4-processor Sparcstation 10
	Two 2-processor " "
	Four 1-processor " "

Have used PVM in past on Cray YMP, C90.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: tannenba@engr.wisc.edu (Todd Tannenbaum)

>
>Are you using PVM today?
>

Yes. I am the director of the "Model Advanced Facilities" lab in the
College of Engineering at Univ of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering.
Folks who use the lab rely **heavily** upon PVM. PVM is used to
develop/test parallel applications on our cluster of FDDI-connected HP and
Alpha workstations. Several folks then migrate to an IBM SP2 (using PVMe)
for production runs.

>What are your application(s)?
>

Engineering modeling & simulation; lots in the area of Chemical Engineering.
Also work with sparse matricies.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>

Hewlett Packard 735 Workstations
DEC Alpha Workstaions
Sun SPARCs
IBM RS/6000s
IBM SP1 and SP2

>Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

Better support for batch-style scheduling and processing. Ideally, better
integration with the CONDOR distributed-batch/scheduling system would be
ideal. PVM and Condor currently work together, but in a somewhat limited fasion.

A packet "redirection" mechanism which would allow a scheduler to move a
compute node from one CPU to another, etc.

An API interface to PVMD which would be used not by end-user programs, but
by scheduling software. The API could provide a whole host of functions
that schedulers would love, but would be difficult to accomplish "outside"
of pvmd proper. i.e. things to gracfully suspend, kill, migrate, etc, a
compute node.

Better disaster recovery and cleanup. By cleanup, I mean if things blowup
then pvmd does not hang, removes lock files, etc, from /tmp, etc.

P.S.: a heartfelt "Thank You" to the PVM Project Team for all their hard &
excellent work! Esp in Chemical Engineering polymer studes, here at Univ of
Wisconsin MAF we are making great new strides & discoveries based upon
simulation code written in PVM.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Todd Tannenbaum email: tannenba@engr.wisc.edu
Director of the Model Advanced Facility voice phone: (608) 262-3118
Computer-Aided Engineering Center FAX phone: (608) 265-4546
University of Wisconsin-Madison

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: T.G.Thomas@qmw.ac.uk (T.G.Thomas)

> Are you using PVM today?
	Yes.

> What are your application(s)?
	Computational Fluid Dynamics (Turbulence simulation using
	Large Eddy Simulation / Direct Simulation techniques)

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
	Code development on a few networked SGI Indies and Linux PCs.
	Production work on Cray T3D and Intel iPSC/860.

--
Glyn Thomas | Turbulence Unit, Dept Civil Engng,
Internet: t.g.thomas@qmw.ac.uk | Queen Mary & Westfield College,
Voice: +44 (0)71-975-5196 | Mile End Rd, London E1 4NS, UK.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Anthony B Wilkinson <abw@uncc.edu>

I use it in a parallel programming class every year, with SUN workstations (usually
just a few). We did have to write our own software to get around not having rlogin/rsh
turned on on our network and introduce local security in the past.
It would be nice to have a meeting/workshop on using pvm for teaching.

Barry Willkinson
Assoc. Professor
Dept of Computer Science
UNC-Charlotte

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: kitajima@cic.unb.br (Joao Paulo Kitajima)

> Could you take a moment to answer three questions.

Just a remark: I do not work anymore in France. I am in Brazil
now. My new address is in the signature of this message.

> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

> What are your application(s)?

I have developed a tool that simulates (using synthetic workloads)
a parallel program. Program written in C.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

32 RS6000 inside a SP-1 parallel machine.

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

For me currently, PVM is good as it is today.

Joao Paulo

--
Kitajima, Joao Paulo (CNPq fellowship) (kitajima@cic.unb.br)
CIC (Ciencia da Computacao) vox +55 (0)61 348 2482/fax +55 (0)61 273 3589
UnB - Campus Universitario, Asa Norte 70919-900 Brasilia DF - Brasil
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Matthijs Kadijk <kkm@sparc-31.bouw.tno.nl>

> Could you take a moment to answer three questions.
>
> Are you using PVM today?

YES.

>
> What are your application(s)?

(Nonlinear) Finite Element Calculations.

Currenlty I am devellopping a distributed database
management system for a special purpose database
containing a large FE model.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

not more that about 5 machines per VM from LAN with

HP, SGI, SUN (SPARC), DEC ALPHA (and Linux)

That's all folks, Matthijs.

 _____________________ ______________________________
/ Matthijs Kadijk \ / email: kkm@bouw.tno.nl \
| TNO-Bouw, Postbus 49 | www: http://www.bouw.tno.nl \___________________
| NL-2600 AA Delft | tel: +31 - 15 - 842 195 /\ fax: +31 15 843975 \
\_____________________/ \ ________________________/ \_ _____________________/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: rsh@ddci.dk (Rene Staune Holm)

>Are you using PVM today?

no

>What are your application(s)?

A Fortran77 program. Solving Navier Stokes equations.

>Machines used with PVM

A SPARCstation2 and three SPARC IPX running SunOS 4.1.3.

Regards,

Rene S. Holm
(rsh@ddci.dk)
DDC-I A/S

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Peter-Christian.Eccardt@zfe.siemens.de (Peter-Christian Eccardt)
>
>Are you using PVM today?
>
yes

>What are your application(s)?
>
we try to couple simulators running on different workstations
within a noncommercial project supported by the german government

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
3 SGI (4D25, indigo, indy)
1 SUN Sparc II

>Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
>Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
>
PVM was very helpful for us. As we are developing our software
with c++, we wrote a c++ class library based on PVM to make pvm
even more easy to use as it already is.

Please let us know about new developments

Best regards

--
Peter-Christian Eccardt
Siemens AG
ZFE T KM 1
Otto-Hahn-Ring 6
81730 Muenchen
Tel. (089) 636-47689
Fax (089) 636-46881
email eccardt@ztivax.zfe.siemens.de
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: eva@ac.upc.es (Eva Lopez Cervilla)

>Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

>What are your application(s)?

Some taken from the APPARC Application Suite and parallized by myself. All
they solve sparse matrices. We are using them to study the behaviour of
parallized applications in message-passing systems. Basically, we are
measuring how execution time varies with communication parameters such are
data rate of transfer between processors, number of processors...etc. Were
you interested on any special feature, just let me know and I'll send
you back the information.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

I've been using it with two different kinds of machines:

 	ALPHA
	_____

	Caractheristics :

			System name : OSF1
			Node name : romeu
			Operating system release : V2.0
			Operating system version : 240
			Machine hardware name : DEC Alpha

 CNVX
 _____

 Caractheristics :

 System name : Convex O.S.
 Node name : kefren
 Operating system release : V10.1
 Operating system version : 1
 Machine hardware name : Convex C-series

and only one machine of each kind.

>Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

Well, I've been having a problem with a large application, that passes large
messages, when the number of processors running in parallel is also "large"
(13). I got messages of the kind: "Task xxxxxxx not responding. Marking
task xxxxxx as dead". Noone here seems to know why that happens. My own
suspicion is that PVM has an internal counter in order to detect whether a
task is dead or not, and, because of the large times spent in
communications, some task is unable to update its counter, so PVM doesn't
see it any more.

Should it be true, could you give PVM users some kind of information about
where this counter is located and how it works?

Should it not, do you have any idea of why it's passing?

(Strictly talking, that shouldn't be my problem. I'm just a user and
shouldn't have anything to do with PVM internals. But, if you've got the
answers, they will be welcome).

Second: In Convex, we have got a system of queues, and interactive CPU time
per user is limited. My way of working is as follows: I send the parent
application to the queue. There, it starts PVM, and, once started, spawns
the rest of tasks that will run in parallel.

As I have experienced hundred of times, PVM and children tasks consume
interactive CPU time, in spite of having been started from into the queue
and not having any terminal assigned. Now, let's suppose that you've got
eight tasks running in parallel and that seven of them plus the daemon are
consuming interactive CPU time. How long would you be able to run before
you get the message: "You've reached your i. CPU quote. All your
interactive processes have been killed"? Got the idea?

No need to say that Convex experts assure it's a PVM bug. Do you have
anything to argue?

If you are wishing to work on any of this and need additional information,
please, email me. I appreciate your interest.

---------
Eva
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: nystrom@ludwig.psc.edu (N.A. Nystrom)

> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

> What are your application(s)?

Currently: GAMESS (ab initio quantum chemistry)

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

6 machine types: Cray T3D, C90 SGI Indy, Crimson DEC Alpha, PMAX

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

I'd like to see a clearer specification of the implementation of
PVM. For instance, the different location of pvmd3 on various
systems often causes confusion for new users.

Nick Nystrom
PSC

============================================================================
 Nicholas A. Nystrom, Ph.D. Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center
 Scientific Specialist Mellon Institute Building
 email: nystrom@psc.edu 4400 Fifth Avenue
 voice: +1 412-268-1592 fax: -5832 Pittsburgh, PA 15213 USA
============================================================================
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Davide Anguita <anguita@dibe.unige.it>
>
> Are you using PVM today?

yes

>
> What are your application(s)?
>

Neural Network Simulation

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>

IBM R6000/550 - IBM POWERPC/250 - HP 9000/720

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
>

-- Davide.
==========================================================================
Davide Anguita					DIBE
Phone:	+39-10-3532192				University of Genova
Fax:	+39-10-3532175				Via all'Opera Pia 11a
e-mail: anguita@dibe.unige.it			16145 Genova, ITALY
==========================================================================
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Ernest L. Baker" (AED-EWD) <ebaker@PICA.ARMY.MIL>

>>Are you using PVM today?
Yes.

>>What are your application(s)?
Nonlinear optimization.

>>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
SGI 4D, 4 CPUs. Cray T3D planned.

>>Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
New user. Premature for meaningful comment.

>>Your help is much appreciated.
Thank you for your help.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: rlh0750@tntech.edu (Roger L. Haggard)
>
>Are you using PVM today?
 No.
>What are your application(s)?
 Teaching parallel processing - relatively simple example programs: matrix
algebra and ODE/PDE solutions.
>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 On a network of DEC workstations at Pittsburgh Supercomputer Center (about
8 to 10 machines).
>
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Roger L. Haggard, Assistant Professor
EE Department, Box 5004 FAX: (615)372-6172
Tennessee Tech University Email: RLH0750@TNTECH.EDU
Cookeville, TN 38505 Phone: (615)372-3453
---------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: wwingle@gale.Mines.Colorado.EDU (William Wingle - GE)

PVM Project Team,

> Are you using PVM today?

I've ported PWM over, but I haven't had the time to use it yet.

> What are your application(s)?

Eventually I will be applying it to geostatistical methods applied to
contaminant groundwater issues.

Others in my lab apply it to 3D seismic inversion problems (geophysics)
for oil and gas reservoir analysis

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Again, I haven't applied it let, but we have pvm running on 25 IBM RISC 6000
and 10 Next workstations.

			Bill Wingle
			Department of Geology and Geological Engineering
			Colorado School of Mines
			Golden, Colorado 80401

			(303) 273-3905, (303) 273-3859 (FAX)
			wwingle@mines.colorado.edu

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: vspa@eng.auth.gr (Vasilis Spais)

Dear Sirs,

I am briefly responding to your query concerning our use of PVM:

Yes we are using PVM today
(unfortunately version 3.2; where can I get the latest version
including documentation? I have version 3.6 undocumented)

We are using it to run Genetic Algorithms (an embarassingly
parallel application) and we are trying to use it for numerically solving
electromagnetic field propagation problems by applying a parallel
version of the Beam Propagation Method.

We run PVM over a slow ethernet network on Unix workstations, mainly
series HP9000/700. We usually employ two to four workstations, although
we have occasionally used as many as eight.

 Vasilios A. Spais
 Electrical Engineer
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: andrea@cip.unica.it (Andrea Bosin)

Answers to your questions.

>
> Are you using PVM today?

 Used up to november 1994; planned to use it again from april 1995.

>
> What are your application(s)?

 Quantum Monte Carlo simulations for simple atoms and solids (future).

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

 Usually less than 10, twice or three times around 30 (on a IBM SP1).
 Sun SPARCstation, IBM RS6000, HP Apollo, Digital Alpha.

>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

 You are working very well!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Peter Krull" <pete@samson.idec.sdl.usu.edu>
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

>
> What are your application(s)?

We have developed our own software to process satellite imagery. We use PVM to
perform simple message passing between distributed hosts.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

4 - 16 single cpu SGI Indigo/Indigo2's and 2 multiple cpu SGI Onyxs.

>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
>

It would be nice to be able to have PVM be reentrant (if I'm using the term
correctly). I've run in to problems when I've wanted to monitor host
utilization. My desire is to send a signal to the host and have it report back
usage stats. I've found that if the host is blocking while waiting for a
message and gets a signal, it doesn't return from the signal handler
successfully. I was told by PVM support that because signals are handled
differently on different platforms, a solution to this problem is probably not
feasible. My only suggestion for a solution would be to have platform specific
versions of PVM. This problem is probably not significant enough to justify
such a solution, however.

--
Peter Krull
Space Dynamics Lab
1747 N Research Parkway
Logan, Ut 84341

801 755-4357
pete@samson.idec.sdl.usu.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Robert G. Brown" <rgb@phy.duke.edu>
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Yes and no. I'm not using it "today", but I'm using it as part of the
project I'm working on (just not that part I'm CURRENTLY working on).

> What are your application(s)?

Dynamical numericalj simulation of d-lattice-dimension O(n) Heisenberg
Models.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

A farm of up to 32 Sparcstations of varying vintage (single SS-I
desktop CPUs through 4x Ross HyperSparc CPUs in SS-10's and 630's). I
made some effort to run on heterogeneous machines, but it was too
difficult to keep code consistent across platforms that lacked an ANSI
C compiler or had different systems libraries. Right now I'm working
primarily on a farm of Sparc CPU's that gives me around 250 MFLOPS
sustained on coarsely parallelized von Neummann code running in
master/slave mode, WHILE other folks are using the consoles of many of
those machines for standard Unix activities. The farm is scalable,
and I hope to get it up to .5-1 GFLOPS over the next year as we
upgrade desktop computing facilities in our department and install
additional compute servers.

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

Hmmm, it has been nine months or more since I last worked with it, but
as I recall there are several features that I would like to see
implemented or improved.

1) The processor monitor/control facility is (to say the least)
primitive. It should return as much information as ps -auxww (BSD)
does on the machine in question for each running process under
control. It should also allow any (Unix) signal to be sent to those
processes -- I found it necessary to be able to send STOP,CONT, USR1
and USR2 to some of my processes -- INTR and KILL are other natural
candidates for "rogue" processes. Yes, I could (and did) rsh a ps and
rsh a kill, but this involved a complicated combination of using the
monitor to identify a troubled process, figuring out the machine it
was on, figuring out its (Unix) PID and (Unix) status, and sending it
a (Unix) signal, all the while popping in and out of the monitor or
using multiple windows. Although not strictly necessary, it would be
wonderful to have a nifty X-client for the monitor program with
buttons and data entry lines and not just a command line version.

2) One of the HARDEST problems to solve in contemporary network
programming is how to write an numerical application with a
non-trivial execution loop (that might run for minutes to hours in a
single loop pass or days or weeks in total) and still allow real-time
program interruption for modification of its run state. This problem
is especially irritating when one is trying to write a program with an
X-based front end/graphical display. Current solutions include:
 a) Just use blocking or non-blocking I/O somewhere inside the main
event loop (X or otherwise). This is fine if the execution loop is
grained to complete in <.1 sec, terrible if it completes in >10 sec
(so one has to wait, and wait, and wait, for the program to get to the
I/O statement). Note that I disallow entirely the option of polling
in the innermost loops for both efficiency and blocking reasons.
 b) Separate the front end and the main loop into different programs,
called or forked or rsh'd as appropriate. Set up a the I/O inside the
short event loop of the control program. Set up sockets and/or pipes
and a signal mechanism to asynchronously interrupt the execution
module, set a flag to interrupt the innermost loops at a suitable
point (a simple conditional is much cheaper than polling for I/O),
handle some I/O in a controlled manner, and resume execution, or
restart the program, or terminate it after writing out its current
state, or whatever.

Note that I have figured out how to do all or most of this with
standard calls and tools -- but doing it is extremely non-trivial
network programming, especially when master (front end) and slave are
on different CPU's. You could Make The World A Better Place if you
could construct a simple library of function calls that would reduce
all the hard part of this (fork/exec/rsh'ing, building the socket I/O
channels, establishing the signal mechanism that tells the slave to
listen to the master via the channel, and finally making the messaging
channel reliable) to boilerplate. Quite a bit of this is already in
pvm (one reason I like it) but there's quite a bit missing, especially
on the asynchronous interrupt and signal support side (see item 1, for
example).

As a test case and demonstration, you should build a simple
demonstration of an X front end that serves as a mandelbrot DISPLAY
(only) with buttons and sliders and all, and a pvm-driven set of
clients that run asynchronously and can be interrupted and reset at
any time from the front end. X-based mandelbrot programs abound, but
the all suffer from the annoying feature that they are not
interruptible in the main X event loop until they finish their current
picture, unless they poll for I/O in the "wrong place". This can take
a LONG time, or waste a LOT OF time, depending on which you choose to
do.

If you build the support routines needed to do this as a standard part
of pvm and make them really easy to use and functional, you could even
submit the result to the X-Consortium as a contributed library to be
included with the standard release, as it would meet a real need and
fix a real shortcoming of X. I know many physicists who have
struggled with this particular problem and (usually) worked out their
own solution at the cost of reinventing dozens of network programming
wheels or (occassionally) just thrown up their hands in disgust and
run/interrupted/reset things more simply, more expensively, and less
conveniently by hand.

3) Finally, yes, an interactive parallel (x-based) debugger would
surely help debug the really hard problems that can arise in parallel
code. When last I used your program, I don't think that it had one,
although a friend did mention that you have started to provide some
sort of facility in this regard. Keep it up. Eventually one would
like to be able to single step and debug code running on multiple
processors from a single point of development inside some sort of
sensibly designed GUI.

> ps. Previous survey results are available through World Wide Web at
> http://www.epm.ornl.gov/pvm/

Thanks, I'll check it out.

 rgb

Robert G. Brown	 http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb
Duke University Dept. of Physics
Box 90305
Durham, N.C. 27708-0305
Phone: 1-919-660-2567 Fax: 919-660-2525 email:rgb@phy.duke.edu

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: viredaz@research.nj.nec.com (Marc Viredaz)
Message-Id: <9501101609.AA00950@iris48>
To: pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu
Subject: Re: PVM survey

>Are you using PVM today?

We are not using PVM today, but we are considering it as a target paradigm
for a novel MPP, under design at NEC Research Institute. Another model
considered is MPI

>What are your application(s)?

Targeted applications are compute-intensive scientific code.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marc A. Viredaz Phone: (+1 609) 951 2790
NEC Research Institute ?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: rea@unh.edu

>Are you using PVM today?

Not really.

>What are your application(s)?

I was using it in a Parallel Computer CS719 class.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

I used & set it up on Linux (486DX50 20MB running latest kernel) and
SGI (R4000 & R4400 32-64MB running IRIX 5.2)

>Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
>Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

A good way to stop pvmd's running on other machines would be good. If
I run on 8 sgi's and one dies, it would be nice if the starting up of
the pvm console could actaully kill off all the other nodes for me.
Instead it seem to not allow you to add the node and you must go kill
it. I can see where it might not the the default case but it would be
nice if it was an optional startup parameter.

>Your help is much appreciated.
>
>Best wishes,
>The PVM Project Team
>
>ps. Previous survey results are available through World Wide Web at
> http://www.epm.ornl.gov/pvm/
>
>pps. We apologize if you received multiple copies of this message.
>Our first attempt at sending the message uncovered a bug in our mailer.
>

-------------------------------------------------------------
 Robert E. Anderson 		 	email: rea@unh.edu
 Systems Programmer			phone: (603) 862-3489
 UNH Research Computing Center		 fax: (603) 862-4623
-------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <rfedors@VIS.ColoState.EDU>

We are currently using pvm in two different Monte Carlo problems. One is a
radiation heat problem which has random emittance of "photons". The second
is running random realizations of groundwater flow problems.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Short answer is 8 SGIs (Irix5.2 & 4.05) and 3 SUNs (SunOS 4.1.1.2) all of
which are single processor machines.

The long answer:
Although we are a visualization lab (data modeling, geometric modeling, video
production, etc), two of the staffers are engineers whose primary research
focus requires extensive numerical work. We both thought that pvm might
be an additional tool for our work. We have pvm running on 3 SUNs and
8 Silicon Graphics machines. All of our machines are connected by ether net
although we are considering ATM or FDDI. We are not doing any shared memory
pvm programming and do not envision future work in that area. This is because
our primary goals are to solve engineering problems, not to make advances in
high performance computing. Thus simple calls to start discrete sub-problems
on other machines, as the machines become available, is exactly what we
want out of pvm. People like us rely upon examples in the pvm documentation
to quickly get things going. We do not want to take the time to learn the
verbiage of computer experts, and thus we appreciated the examples in the
documentation and encourage more examples illustrating the capabilities
and tricks of pvm.

Randy Fedors rfedors@vis.colostate.edu
 Civil Engineering Dept < Ph.D. student Groundwater Program > (303)491-8202
 Computer Visualization Lab < Visualization Consultant > (303)491-1578
Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <Vincent.Rijmen@esat.kuleuven.ac.be>

I am using PVM today, on a cluster of workstations (DEC stations with ULTRIX,
HP stations with HP-UX, SUNs with SUNOS) and a pentium with Linux.
In total there are more than 80 stations, but most of the time I only
use 10 or 20 of them.

My applications are cryptanalytic attacks. Some of the most successfull
attacks on for instance the DES use lots of identical operations, easy
to distribute over lots of processors.

The problem I have is that sometimes I lose a machine from the cluster,
and that not all the hosts are aware of this: if I start with 50 hosts,
after a night I typically lose 1 or 2 hosts (that is due to network
problems here), but some of the other 48 hosts think they are still
with 50. The 2 lost hosts sometimes think they are still in the group.

Perhaps that could be improved ?

Vincent
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Robert G. Brown" <rgb@phy.duke.edu>

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

Addendum to previous note:

 a) Distribute the software directly through the Web page you
advertised. Why force potential users to go through netlib?
 b) Your web server seems sluggish. Move the primary pvm
distribution off onto an SS20 or something, mirror it on the (possibly
overloaded) netlib server, and make it available via
anon-ftp/gopher/WWW as WELL as netlib. Frankly, netlib is an idea
whose time has completely and irrevocably passed with the overwhelming
acceptance and universality of WWW/Mosaic. The whole netlib
distribution should now be made available ONLY through the WWW. Feel
free to pass this idea on to its keepers (they probably know it
already).
 c) Looking through the release notes through 3.3.6, it looks like
several of the features I suggest are still absent. I suggest that
you really look carefully into the signal/non-blocking I/O problem and
work out a better solution than currently seems implemented, and
better control and debugging features are always welcome...

 rgb

Robert G. Brown	 http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb
Duke University Dept. of Physics
Box 90305
Durham, N.C. 27708-0305
Phone: 1-919-660-2567 Fax: 919-660-2525 email:rgb@phy.duke.edu

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Atanas Radenski <radenski%ecsgate@uncecs.edu>
>
> Are you using PVM today?

No, but I plan to use it in the near future.
>
> What are your application(s)?

An experimental compiler for a parallel OOP language.
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

DEC Alpha workstations (we have a network of 10).

Atanas Radenski
Department of Computer Science
Winston-Salem State University
P.O.Box 13069
Winston-Salem, NC 27110

Phones:	(910) 750-2478 (office)
	(910) 765-5713 (home)
Fax:	(910) 750-2499 (office)
E-mail:	radenski@uncecs.edu

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Anjuli S Bamzai <abamzai@energy.science.gmu.edu>

Answers to the three questions:

Yes sometimes

Mainly data parallel computationally intensive problems

Silicon Graphics and NeXT machines (upto 15 total but after about 8 the response gets
quite slow)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: ynnerman@vuse.vanderbilt.edu (Bo Anders Ynnerman)
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Yes

>
> What are your application(s)?
>

Atomic structure calcluations.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>

Locally we are using 4 IBM PowerStation 370. We also have access to a 16
node SP2.

Anders Ynnerman
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Paolo TUNINETTO <s68338@galileo.polito.it>

Hi, I'm a student of Computer Engineering at Politecnico di Torino,
For my thesys I'm developing an application for doing symbolic traverse
of FSM.
My virtual machine is a network of 8 alpha

 Paolo Tuninetto
PS: Excuse me for my poor English
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: patton@uabphy.phy.uab.edu (David Clay Patton)

Are you using PVM today?
yes
What are your application(s)?
quantum mechanical determination of the electronic structure of
materials
How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
1 SUN4 and 2 SUN4SOL2
Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
I still can not get PVM to run correctly on SUNMP machines.
It works fine by itself, but when I run it on a SUNMP and then
another machine the communication breaks down and I get all kinds
of netinput bogus packet from ... messages.
I suspect there are still bugs in the SUNMP port.

Your help is much appreciated.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Alex Matro" <matro@haydn.chm.uri.edu>

Q1: Are you using PVM today?
A1: Yes.

Q2: What are your application(s)?
A2: We are using Monte Carlo simulations to calculate thermodynamic
properties of systems where we need to know the Boltzmann distribution
at higher temperatures to ensure proper sampling of the configuration space.
[See "Reducing quasi-ergodic behaviour in Monte-Carlo simulations by
J-walking: Applications to atomic clusters" by D.D. Franz, D.L. Freeman
and J.D. Doll, J. Chem. Phys. 93, 2769 (1990)]
Instead of calculating such a distribution ahead of time and storing it we run
Monte Carlo simulations at the higher temperatures simultaneously with the
lower-temperature calculations and use PVM to pass the higher-temperature
configurations to the lower temperatures.

Q:How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
A:We are using four Silicon Graphics Indigo workstations.

--
*******************************
Alex Matro *
matro@haydn.chm.uri.edu *
(401)792-2597 *
Department of Chemistry *
University of Rhode Island *
Kingston, RI 02881-0809 *
*******************************

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <tap@imt950.imt-mrs.fr>
Received: from mac-sb.imt-mrs.fr by imt950.imt-mrs.fr (AIX 3.2/UCB 5.64/4.03)
 id AA13135; Tue, 10 Jan 1995 18:33:56 -0600
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 1995 18:33:56 -0600
Message-Id: <9501110033.AA13135@imt950.imt-mrs.fr>
To: pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu
Subject: Re: PVM survey

>Are you using PVM today?
>YES
>What are your application(s)?
>Teaching parallel computing
>Supporting PVM for scientific users of our machines
>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>RS6K,HPPA,CRAY
>Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
Improve shared memory implementation
Develop a light-weight, non-intrusive xpvm

PVM is a easy-to-think, hard-to-write tool, and have a heavy syntax.
Why, as it becomes widely used, change for another DIFFERENT and
INCOMPATIBLE standard (MPI) ?

___________________________________________________________

Thierry Arpin-Pont

INSTITUT MEDITERRANEEN DE TECHNOLOGIE
Centre de Calcul
Technopole de Chateau-Gombert
13451 Marseille cedex 20
FRANCE

tel : 33-91054568
fax : 33-91054343
email : tap@imt950.imt-mrs.fr
___________________________________________________________

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: cheatham@tettares.ucsf.EDU (Thomas Cheatham)

> Are you using PVM today?

Yes, although not in any production runs (only for development
currently)

> What are your application(s)?

AMBER, a molecular dynamics package

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

SGI's: 4 processor Challenge (attempted, but not working)
 cluster of indigo2's (2 machines)
 heterogeneous (indigo2's, TFP, older machines, not working)
 (standard LAN, no FDDI)

HP735's: cluster of 8, standard LAN (no FDDI)

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

Fix up the group server so that it is more standard in terms of
spawning it. I had great trouble with PVM 3.3.3? getting my
group operations running until I modified all my paths and placed
the pvmgs in accessible places.

Modify the PVM console to have the ability to clean up old /tmp files.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <montoliu@lix.polytechnique.fr>

> Are you using PVM today?
Yes
> What are your application(s)?
A multi-agent bank check recognition system

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
Only a network of 3 SUN-sparc10

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
1 - A graphic interface to allow us to design the processes (agents)
 and the links between them which would generate a C skeleton file to
 run the processes could be very useful and time saving (especially for
 somebody like me who is not a specialist of parallel systems but
 just an user).

2 - Different examples of applications and configurations could also be
 very usefull.

Lionel Montoliu

+------- Montoliu Lionel ---------+--------------------------------------+
| Laboratoire d'Informatique (LIX) | Phone: (33-1) 69 33 34 69 |
| Ecole Polytechnique | Fax: (33-1) 69 33 30 14 |
| F91128 Palaiseau Cedex, FRANCE | e-mail: montoliu@lix.polytechnique.fr|
| http://lix.polytechnique.fr/ | |
+-----------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Gregory A. Baker" <baker@csr.utexas.edu>
>
> Are you using PVM today?
>
Yes, we are in the process of writing a library of subroutines applied
to the orbit determination problem. They will use PVM to communicate.

> What are your application(s)?
>
Our basic problem is orbit determination. Specifically, we are looking
at three different areas.
1) Estimation of a large gravity field ( about 50,000 parameters )
2) Determination of orbits using GPS data ( tons of observations )
3) Baseline determination on the earth's surface using GPS data

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
Cray T3D, HP 735, Sun Sparc 10, SGI Iris, NeXT

--
*******************************************************************
* *
* Gregory A. Baker *
* *
* Center for Space Research Phone : (512) 471-5509 *
* University of Texas at Austin Email : baker@csr.utexas.edu *
* 2901 North IH-35 *
* Austin, TX 78722 *
* *
*******************************************************************
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: neri@di.unito.it (Filippo Neri)

Dear Sirs,

We are a group of scientists working in Machine Learning.
We are currently using pvm3, in one of our application realized as
a distributed system.

Our application is relative to the concept learning task by using
a genetic algorithm approach.
We achieve our goal by letting different GA evolve and cooperate
by means of a communication network.

We are currently using pvm3 on these architectures:

SUN4
 it works very well!

CM5
 Here, pvm3 is not as robust as on the SUN4 architecture.
 We had problem in the memory allocation for the message passing activity.
 PVM3 was not able to completly de-allocate memory after the receipt of
 a message. Now we have partially solved the problem, but it still
 exists for communication between the host and the processors network.

Best wishes

Filippo Neri
Ph. D. Student

Dipartimento di Informatica
Universita' di Torino
ITALY

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: simpson@abacus.mwsu.edu (Richard Simpson)
>
>Are you using PVM today?

I used PVM for the first time this summer in a graduate course
in distributed systems. It worked very well and I plan on using
it the next time I teach the course. This course only occurs
every two years.
>
>What are your application(s)?

I justed picked several simple applications such as distributed
integration of a polynomial curve. There is a certain amount of
learning curve for PVM that the students had to master and in a
5 1/2 week course little time was left for interesting apps.
>
>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

We used several PCs running LINUX and a micro VAX running ULTRIX
all connected together via a net.
>
>Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
>Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

I was very pleased to discover this system. It is seldom that a
small school like ourselves can afford any type of parallel or
distributed software or hardware.
>
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
@ Beauty surrounds us yet we are Blind!!! @
@ @
@ Richard P. Simpson Work Phone: (817)689-4191 @
@ Assistant Professor @
@ Dept. of Computer Science simpson@abacus.mwsu.edu @
@ Midwestern State University @
@ 3410 Taft @
@ Wichita Falls, Tx 76308 @
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Sowmini Varadhan <varadhan@cs.utk.edu>
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

> What are your application(s)?

Parallel numeric computing for the computation of the SVD of
large, sparse matrices.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Sparcs, RS6K

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

Some comments on the PVM book, available on-line-

The PVM book leaves much to be desired:
It's not clear what _kind_ of audience this book is targetted for.
Is it intended for

1. the scientist/engineer who wants to use PVM to implement some algorithm
 in parallel, or

2. the network programmer, who wishes to understand the implementation
 details?

In case 1, description of the implementation details should be intended
only to show how efficiency gains may be achieved. In case 2, implementation
details should show how the applications motivated PVM design.

In either case, Chapter 7 ("How PVM Works") is confusing, and
appears to be badly organized; while it makes an attempt to describe
the data structures used to implement buffers, host tables etc.,
there is a recurring problem of cross-references: terms are used
before they are clearly defined, so that it neither throws light
on the implementation details, nor does it indicate how to use
the libraries to obtain max. efficiency. This chapter needs some
serious restructuring.

--Sowmini
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: roy@nersc.gov (Roy Troutman)

> Are you using PVM today?
>

Yes. I use version 3.2 to talk to a Cray T3D and 3.3 on a Sun cluster.

> What are your application(s)?
>

Volume rendering and Ray Tracing.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with
> PVM?
>

16 processors of a Cray T3D and 28 Sun 2 class machines.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: jesus@sobrino.eui.upm.es (Alonso Segoviano)

> Are you using PVM today?

	Not in this moment, but in the past and soon in the future.

> What are your application(s)?

	It have been of two types:

		1- Thermodynamic & Aerodynamics.
		2- 'Distributed processing' teaching

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

	a- 8 machines
	b- ibm/6000 (530+580)

Regards, Jesus

 ----------------------------
 Jesus Alonso Segoviano Tf. (34.1) 336.78.81
 Fax (34.1) 336.75.20
 Escuela Universitaria de Informatica - OEI
 Universidad Politecnica de Madrid.
 Crta. de Valencia km-7. 28031 Madrid. Spain jesus@eui.upm.es
 ____________________________
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: mcastro@dsee.fee.unicamp.br (Marcelo Stehling de Castro)

>Are you using PVM today?

Yes, I am.

>What are your application(s)?

It's an On-line operation and control of power systems using distributed computing environments.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

I am using 3 different kind of machines using 2 architetures : SUN4 and RS6K
which are described bellow:

DCE#1: Sparc2+Ethernet

	This distributed environment consists of ten SUN UNIX-based workstations (one server 470 and nine
 Sparc2 model) connected as an Ethernet LAN (coaxial cable), featuring nominal bandwidth of 10 Mbps.

DCE#2: RS6K/560+Ethernet

	It's an homogeneous cluster of eight IBM RISC/6000 workstations (model 560) interconnected as an
Ethernet token-ring LAN (coaxial cable) with nominal bandwidth of 16 Mbps.

DCE#3: RS6K/370+FDDI

	The third DCE used for testing is a cluster of eight IBM RISC/6000 workstations (model 370) that
constitute a SP1 computer (Scalable PowerParallel System 1). Each node has 256 Mbytes of RAM and delivers
 peak performance of 125 Mflops. The nodes are connected as a fiber optic token-ring LAN (Fiber
 Distributed Data Interface/FDDI), running at nominal bandwidth of 100 Mbps, through an active wire
center (hub).

	NOTES:

	A) DCE#1 is located in Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the University of Campinas, Brazil;

	B) DCE#2 and DCE#3 were part of the High Performance Computing National Center at S~ao Paulo
		State (CENAPAD-SP);
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: kpierson@ncsa.uiuc.edu (Kendall H Pierson)

I used PVM to implement a viscoelastic finite element code (I did not
write the original code) on the CM-5. Someday, I would like to run it
on other types of machines to compare the speed.
 I hope this helps.

Kendall H. Pierson
NCSA research assistant
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Sudarsanam, Sucha" <sucha@Immunex.com>

Hi,

Here are my answers.

Sucha Sudarsanam
Associate Staff Scientist
Department of Protein Chemistry
Immunex Corporation
51 University Street
Seattle WA 98101
206-587-0430, x4767
sucha@immunex.com

Dear Colleague,

In order to improve PVM we are trying to understand how
people are using the system. Your feedback is important.
Could you take a moment to answer three questions.

Are you using PVM today?
Yes.

What are your application(s)?
We have developed in-house application(s) for protein loop modeling using PVM.
I would be happy to send reprints of papers describing our work.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
Currently we use three types of machines: SGI, MIPS and Sun-SPARC. We plan to
use it on DEC Alpha.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <AAMAC@ACVAX.INRE.ASU.EDU>

Hello,

We are only using pvm for MCNP 4.0 on a small LAN of IBM RS6000 workstations.

Bob Metzger
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Peter Imants Buttuls <Peter.Buttuls@UAlberta.CA>

> Are you using PVM today?
>
 We at CNS are supporting PVM on behalf of the University of Alberta. Yes,
 we have about half a dozen regular users of PVM.

> What are your application(s)?
>
 Speaking for the university as a whole, the applications are:
 1. Biochemistry:A research project that seeks to use parallel computer
 technology to derive the detailed structure of a protein molecule from
 x-ray crystallographic data.

 2. Canadian Network for Space Research.
 Three-dimensional flow equations for a plasma in a magnetic field.
 3. Computing Science.
 A private company, working together with this department, is porting
 and tuning their IBM RS/6000 version of their parallel software to
 a workstation cluster.
 4. Computing Science
 Developing a GUI system for developing parallel applications in C.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

 Right now we have a workstation cluster of 21 IBM RS/6000s, model 355, but
 we just set up a newly odered SP2 which will be running IBM's PVMe.
>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
>
>
 I'd like to see the PVM documentation improved even more, with the
 objective that PVM becomes even easier to use.

Peter Buttuls, CNS, Univ. of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
e-mail: peter.buttuls@ualberta.ca Ph. (403) 492-9354 Fax: (403) 492-1729
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: bubakr@bach.univ-savoie.fr (Zeraidi)

Dear Monsieur

1- yes i'am using PVM
2- my applications are : Domain decomposition for elliptic problems on
unstructured meshes comparaisation :volumes finites methodes and finites
elements methodes and implimantation of code parallelisme using PVM and IMP
3-I am using the last version of PVM
on SIlicon Graphics IRIS Indigo workstations<<fortran>>.

Can you send me some concret application examples to us
 Dot product,Matrix somme,Matrix multiply.......
------------------------------------------------------------
Bubakr Zeraidi
Universite de Savoie, Laboratoire de Mathematiques
Campus Scientifique, 73376 Le Bourget du Lac Cedex, France
e-mail:bubakr@bach.univ-savoie.fr,

think you very match.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: alberto@inf.ufes.br (Alberto Ferreira de Souza)

Are you using PVM today?

	>> Yes.

What are your application(s)?

	>> Neural Networks.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

	>> 4 DEC-ALPHA (DEC 2000), 5 SUNs (4 Spark station ELC and 1 Spark station 2)

Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

	>> We are testing PVM now. We have been good results.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Weiping Zhu <mawpz@cis.unisa.edu.au>

>Could you take a moment to answer three questions.
>
>Are you using PVM today?

Yes, I do.

>What are your application(s)?

Image processing, graph processing

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Sparc, CM-5 (but I have problems running it on CM-5)

Comment and suggestion will send to you soon

Weiping

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "john R. Latala" <jrl@humpty.waterloo.NCR.COM>

pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu scribes:

> Are you using PVM today?

Not currently due to other tasks taking priority.

> What are your application(s)?

Distributed image processing.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Multiprocessor ATT Unix systems.

--
john.Latala@Waterloo.ATTIGS.COM

/EARTH is 90% full, please delete anything that's not needed ...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: ouyang@e0sun3.ccl.itri.org.tw (Pei Ouyang (+886-35-915597))

> Are you using PVM today?
Yes.

> What are your application(s)?
Mainly for PVM study. Till now, we have used PVM to speed up several
scientific applications, such as matrix multiplication.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
Only four -- two SparcStation 10, and two SparcStation 2.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: asathye@tornado.gcn.uoknor.edu (Adwait Sathye)

Are you using PVM today?
	Working on a model port, to PVM, currently.

What are your application(s)?
	3D finite difference storm prediction model.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
	We are targeting the Cray T3D and the IBM SP-2.
Development is being done on our RS/6000 cluster.

Adwait Sathye
Center for Analysis and Prediction of Storms
University of Oklahoma
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: kywu@cpeelgx03.CityU.edu.hk (Calvin K Y Wu)

> Are you using PVM today?
 Yes, we are.
> What are your application(s)?
 Linear Algebra.
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 Five. The architectures are SUNMP, SUN4SOL2 and LINUX.

In our experience, PVM (up to 3.3.6) is still not very stable on Sun system
with multiple CPUs. Hope to see some improvement in this area.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Daniel Aliaga <aliaga@cs.unc.edu>

>Are you using PVM today?

Yes, for 1.5 years.

>What are your application(s)?

We are developing the software system for a high performance
graphics computer. We use PVM to simulate the multi-processor
and multiple components of the system.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

HP 700s. We typically run everything on 1 machines, though
somtimes we use 2-5 HPs. Eventually we might use up to a dozen
HPs. Our department has a couple of dozen HPs.

>Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
>Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

We are trying to incorporate a multi-thread package into the system.
PVM is not ideally suited for that.

Thanks,

Daniel Aliaga
Dept. of Computer Science
UNC Chapel Hill

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: xzou@math.msu.edu (Xiulin Zou)

I am using the PVM now.

I use it for parallel Eigenvalue computation

I use it on SUN4

need to improve the debuggin tools.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: umpei@is.ocha.ac.jp (Umpei Nagashima)

>Are you using PVM today?
 No.
>What are your application(s)?
 Programs for molecular Science. Namely, MO calculation etc.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 10 SUN4 SS10 with SUN Solaris.
 32 SUN4 IPCs with SUN OS 4.1.3

>Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
>Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

Best wishes,
Umpei Nagashima
umpei@is.ocha.ac.jp
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Christopher Ting <thianann@Trantor.DSO.gov.SG>

> Are you using PVM today?
Yes.

> What are your application(s)?
PVM as teaching material for a parallel computing course.
Matrix multiplication, simple image processing,
numerical integration, Monte Carlo as examples.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
16 SGI + 1 SOLARIS + 1 ALPHA

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Both, Hans-Joachim" <job@linpc9.sari.fh-wuerzburg.de>

Are you using PVM today?
yes,we are using pvm since nov 1994

What are your applications?
None real yet, we finished building a pvm-cluster near by the end of dec
1994. In this first phase we have to goals: 1. performing tests to estimate
the speedup limitations 2. select suitable algorithms and programming
modells.

How many and what kind of machines have you uses with PVM?
DEC ALPHA (3), IBM RS6K (1), DEC PMAX (3), INTEL 80x86 (1,2)

Hope it helps, regards
Hans-Joachim Both
Labor fuer Prozessrechentechnik und Graphische Systeme
Fachhochschule Wuerzburg-Schweinfurt-Aschaffenburg
job@linpc9.sari.fh-wuerzburg.de (preferred)
jockelb@vax.rz.uni-wuerzburg.de

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: brachtlm@sun.felk.cvut.cz (Ing. Brachtl Martin dokt k336)

> Are you using PVM today?
Yes.

> What are your application(s)?
I'm learning to solve simple task in parallel.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
About 6 sun4's and 3 SGI's, sometimes my 486 with Linux.

bye Martin Brachtl

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Menez Gilles <Gilles.Menez@alto.unice.fr>

>Are you using PVM today?
No more now, but i will in the future

>What are your application(s)?
Data compression and video processing

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
6 Sparc sun (2, 5, 10)

Best wishes,

Gilles

--
_________________________________________________________________________

 _/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ Gilles Menez
 _/ _/ _/ Laboratoire d'Informatique Signaux et Systemes
 _/ _/_/_/ _/ Universite de Nice Sophia Antipolis-CNRS
 _/ _/ _/ Bat 4 - Les lucioles 1
_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ 250 Rue Albert Einstein
 Valbonne 06560

			 E-mail: menez@alto.unice.fr
 Ph: +33 92 94 27 10 Fax: +33 92 94 28 98
_________________________________________________________________________

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: jpenades@dtic.ua.es (Jose Penades Martinez)
>
> Are you using PVM today?
 Yes
>
> What are your application(s)?
 Solution of large systems of equations using new iterative methods
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 -- Workstations (IBM, SUN) by ethernet and by FDDI;
 -- SP2
>

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Jose Penades
 Departamento de Tecnologia Informatica y Computacion |\ _,,,--,,_ ,)
 Universidad de Alicante /,`.-'`' -, ;-;;'
 E-03080 Alicante, SPAIN |,4- ) )-,_ ) /\
 -- '---''(_/--' (_/-' -------
 Tlf: (6) 5903696, (6) 5903681
 Fax: (6) 5903681
 e-mail: jpenades@dtic.ua.es

 |\ _,,,--,,_ ,)
 /,`.-'`' -, ;-;;'
 |,4- ) )-,_ ) /\
 -- '---''(_/--' (_/-' --------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Dr M R Wilson <M.Wilson@lancaster.ac.uk>
>
> Are you using PVM today?
yes

>
> What are your application(s)?
>
parallel molecular dynamics

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

CRAY T3D, HP workstation cluster, Transtech i860 parallel machine

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Paternoster Beatrice <beapat@dia.unisa.it>

I'm Beatrice Paternoster, from University of Salerno.

< Are you using PVM today?
Not in this period, but I'm going to use it again in two months.

< What are your application(s)?
Parallel programs for the numerical integration of second order ordinary
differential equations y"=f(t,y).

< How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
A network of 6 workstation SUN4.

< Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
This is not properly a suggestions. I'm a Fortran programmer, and I like to
use PVM in Fortran, but we haven't Fortran compiler on SUN. Do you know about
free Fortran compiler? Thank you.

 BEATRICE PATERNOSTER
 Dipartimento di Informatica e Applicazioni
 Universita' di Salerno
 84081 Baronissi (Salerno)
 Italia

 PHONE:+39-(0)89-822328
 FAX: +39-(0)89-822272
 E-MAIL: beapat@udsab.dia.unisa.it
 na.paternoster@na-net.ornl.gov
~

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Chr.Hartmann" <hart@coltrane.baume.bauwesen.tu-muenchen.de>

dear PVM-project team,

thanks for the development of PVM. the library serves as a valuable
tool for cutting down the idle time of our ws-pools. this way we get
insight into the parallel programming paradigm at low-cost level.
it demonstrates clearly that the PMV (poor man's view)
of parallel processing is nessecary to let the engineering community
'play around' with new solutionmethods for classical applications....

 Are you using PVM today?
 What are your application(s)?

yes we are using PVM 3.2.6 to study parallel cellular evolutionary
algorithms solving nonlinear functional optimization problems

 How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

we have a couple (30) of workstations HP9000/7[13]? hpux 9.03,
some (6) Sun Sparc and 6 Linux boxes.
our application written in C++

------------------------- o----> -------------------------------------------
christoph hartmann |\ hart@coltrane.baume.bauwesen.tu-muenchen.de
lehrstuhl f. baumechanik |~\ phone 49 89 2105 8346
tu-muenchen \ fax 49 89 2105 8665
arcisstrasse 21 O -------------------------------------------
80333 muenchen /|
germany /~|
------------------------ /
 O

 |
 V

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Michael Vollmer <mvollmer@rz.id.ethz.ch>

Hi there,
I'm Intel's engineer on site at ETH Zuerich/Switzerland and
responsible for the maintenance of a 96 nodes Paragon system.
In the past there have been two user worked heavily with
pvm. I assume it's better to contact them directly :

Mike Rezny : mr@maths.uq.oz.au
Wouter Couzy : couzy@imhfhp28.epfl.ch

Hope the contact helps.
With regards, Michael Vollmer.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Harald Schallner <harald@hni.uni-paderborn.de>

Are you using PVM today?

--> Yes, we ( a 8 Person team ) are using PVM today

What are your application(s)?

--> Our Project ist called OOPUS ( = object based manufacturing managemant system )

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

--> only SUN4

Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

--> It could be very useful, if communication between different users is possible. ( a kind of multiuser PVM )

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: tkolasny@bme.jhu.edu (Anthony Kolasny)

> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

> What are your application(s)?

Some of the applications in the lab are modeling biological fluid dynamics
and cell network modeling. Currently, we are not directly using PVM
for any project but are familiarizing ourselves with the package at this
time.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Sun Sparc 1, SGI 4D/3xx, Challenge XL

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Dieter Homeister <Dieter.Homeister@IWR.Uni-Heidelberg.De>

> Are you using PVM today?
Yes

> What are your application(s)?

Linear programming/optimisation/branch&bound

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

SUN Sparcstation Classic (2)
IBM RS6000 (4)
Parsytec PowerXplorer (12 PEs)

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

- Documentation: Very good, especially the description of the PVM calls

- Installation: You could deliver the software without -g option in the
makefiles. This would be very helpful. A global switch to include -O or -O4
etc. would save a lot of editing time. (May be you have implemented this
meanwhile)

- The alpha and beta PVM versions of Parsytec PowerXplorer PVM did
not work correct in my applications, so I do not have much
experience here.

- Adding machines to PVM (Add hosts to virtual machine) does not work
fine with Sun and Solaris 2.3.

Regards,
 Dieter

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dieter Homeister
University of Heidelberg

IWR - Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing

Im Neuenheimer Feld 368
69120 Heidelberg
Germany
Tel. +49-6221-56-5446 Fax. -5444
e-mail Dieter.Homeister@IWR.Uni-Heidelberg.de
www http://www.iwr.uni-heidelberg.de/iwr/agbock/users/dieter/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Chris Howarth" <cziusch@pluto.ulcc.ac.uk>

In response to your question. I have tried out using PVM on two Convex
machines - a C3860 and C3200. The installation went smoothly and I ran
a couple of your examples successfully. This is as far as I have gone I am
afraid (mainly due to lack of time).

			Chris Howarth (ULCC)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: ots@atc.ctima.uma.es (Oswaldo Trelles)

Dear collegue

I hope that it is useful to you

--------------------------
Are you using PVM today?

 yes.
---------------------------
What are your application(s)?
 * Biological sequence Analysis area.
 Database searching
 Multiple sequence alignment
 Phylogenetic tress

 Entire database relationship :
 - Irregular computation
 - Storage, recovering and updating sparse matrix
----------------------------
How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 * Paramid : Multiprocesor (16 nodes) message-passing
 * Cluster of workstations
 * Cray-t3d (Edinburgh University) (ocasionally)

best regards
Oswaldo Trelles
ots@atc.ctima.uma.es

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Eckhard Spohr <espohr@zonker.chemie.uni-ulm.de>

Dear Colleagues.
1) I do not use PVM currently
2) I have used it with molecular simulations (trajectories that run
essentially independently from each other)
3) I have hooked together up to 8 IBM RS/6000 + 1 SGI

Eckhard
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Eckhard Spohr Phone: (Germany) +49 731/502-2813
Abteilung fuer Theoretische Chemie FAX: (Germany) +49 731/502-2819
Universitaet Ulm espohr@zonker.chemie.uni-ulm.de
D-89069 Ulm
F.R. Germany
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: basilio@udc.es (Basilio Bernardo Fraguela Rodriguez)

 In answer to your polite letter, here are my responses to your questions:

 * Are you using PVM today?

 YES. I am researching with another two persons on the distributed
 execution of programs written in functional languages, and we have
 selected PVM as the ideal software packet to provide the distributed
 execution facilities we need.

 * What are your application(s)?

 I started to use PVM working on the distribution of mathematical
 algorithms on a cluster of computers (mainly, matrix products and
 large simulations using different data in each computer, whose
 results where gathered to get global results).

 In our new project, we use the interface facilities of a functional
 language called Caml Light with C. The C functions use PVM to create
 tasks corresponding to modules that act as function servers and to
 perform all the communications needed.

 When a client whishes to perform distributed computations, it enters
 PVM calling a function that registers it in PVM and spawns a number
 of servers specified by the client. Later, when it wants a computation
 to be performed remotely, in a server, it passes all the data needed to
 a C function, which sends them to a job scheduler. The client can
 continue with its own computations, without waiting for the result.
 Later, when the computations performed by the client need the result of
 the remote computation, the client will have to wait for it.

 The job scheduler decides which server is to perform the computation
 and sends the data to that server, which will later send the result
 to the client. Servers can also make requests to other servers,
 as we have developed a mechanism to avoid deadlocks.

 If you are interested in knowing more about our project, please do not
 doubt to mail me.

 * How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

 By now we have been using clusters of, at most, 19 Sun SPARCstations ELC.
 For simple trials we use about two or three Sun SPARCstations IPX.
 As you can see they all belong to the SUN4 architecture.

 * Our suggestions.

 We wonder if it would we possible to develop a PVM version capable
 of communicating tasks belonging to different users, as this would
 increase a lot the system flexibility.

 We are also interested in an improvement of the tools to measure
 times and track calls to PVM services. We do think that a lot of
 people is concerned about time measuring, as the reduction in the
 computational times is the real reason for PVM usage.

 Finally we would like to know if there is any forum, congress or
 society dedicated to the study, discussion and promotion of the
 projects developed using PVM.

 Thanks for PVM, we have found it to be a really useful tool.

 +-------------------------------------------+
 | Basilio B. Fraguela Rodriguez |
 | Depto. de Electronica y Sistemas |
 | Facultad de Informatica |
 | Campus de Elvinha |
 | 15071 La Corunha |
 | Spain |
 | |
 | (basilio@udc.es) |
 +-------------------------------------------+

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: wiz01@aix01.rz.fht-mannheim.de (Feinauer Thomas)

----------------------------------------------------------------

 Peter Eberhard
 University of Stuttgart
 Institute B of Mechanics
 Pfaffenwaldring 9
 70550 Stuttgart
 Germany
 pe@mechb1.fertigungstechnik.uni-stuttgart.de

----------------------------------------------------------------

Are you using PVM today?

 Daily

What are your application(s)?

 Mechanical Engineering, simulation, optimization,
 animation, coupling of programs with limited functionality
 to powerful tools

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

 HPPA, SGI5, (SGI, R6k, Paragon)
 4-20 machines

----------------------------------------------------------------

Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

Thank you very much for PVM! A lot of work and some very nice
projects for our students wouldn't have been possible without
this nice, reliable (and cheap) tool.

 But:

- Tracing is VERY BAD. You should support the paragraph-traceformat.
 XPVM is not stable, useless for interactive or big programs and
 has too limited functionality in tracing compared to paragraph. Pablo is
 not easy available on HPPA's and thus no alternative.

- I have to use the hostfile very often to set paths, ... .
 Certainly this info is stored in an internal datastructure. It
 would be a very nice (and maybe simple to realize) feature to
 get info about the actual options of specific hosts from within
 the pvm console.

- XPVM is based on Tcl/Tk, tools not very stable and not portable
 over their own versions. A simple X or Motif GUI would be
 preferable (Motif is not free, ... -I know).

----------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Thomas Erlebach <erlebach@informatik.tu-muenchen.de>

Hi!

>Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

>What are your application(s)?

I'm working on a compiler for a new Pascal-like programming language, APRIL, that
is intended for the easy parallelization of divide and conquer algorithms. The
compiler generates C code which uses PVM for message passing. Example applications
for my compiler (and therefore for PVM, too) include a chip layout algorithm,
a Mandelbrot program, and an algorithm for the travelling salesman problem.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

I've used SUN workstations (Sparc 1, Sparc 2, Sparc 10: architecture SUN4) and
HP 9000/720 workstations (architecture: HPPA). I've used up to 16 SUN's and
up to 70 HP's without problems. We have 110 HP's but I've had serious problems
when I had more than about 70 HP's in the virtual machine. Machines started to drop
out of the virtual machine before I even started an application. I've had
error messages like:

[t80040000] netinput() FIN|ACK from hphalle2j
[t80040000] hd_dump() ref 1 t840000 n "hphalle2j" ar "HPPA" lo ""
[t80040000] sa 131.159.4.40:2011 mtu 4096 f 0x0 e 0 txq 0
[t80040000] tx 9 rx 6 rtt 0.310330

>Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

In general I've been very satisfied with PVM, except for a few problems. First, I've
had the problem I mentioned above with more than about 70 machines. I guess that
it might be caused by some buffers or other data structures within PVM being
configured too small at our site (I'm not the person who installed PVM here).

Another problem I encountered was that messages got lost when I used the option
PvmRouteDirect and a process terminated (pvm_exit) immediately after sending
a message. I got around it by having the master program send a termination
message (via PvmDontRoute) to all other processes. The other processes wait
for this message before they terminate.

By the way, we're still using PVM 3.2.6 at our site.

>Your help is much appreciated.

I hope I was of assistance.

Keep up the good work!

Thomas Erlebach

--
erlebach@informatik.tu-muenchen.de
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: pm@fct.unl.pt (Pedro Medeiros)

> Are you using PVM today?
Yes

> What are your application(s)?

- development of runtime systems for parallel PROLOG dialects
- development of runtime systems for Transputer-based multiprocessors
- parallelization of fluid dynamics applications
- development of a common runtime system for an heterogeneous system including
 NORMA multiprocessors and UNIX workstations

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

- Transputer-based multiprocessor (16 node). We have developped a port of PVM to
 a Meiko CS-1 multicomputer. This port has several limitations.

- UNIX workstations: Sun, DEC 5000, IBM RS/6000, HP 720

>
>

---
E-mail: pm@fct.unl.pt 	FAX: + 351 1 295 56 41

S-mail: Pedro Medeiros
	Dept. of Computer Science, Universidade Nova de Lisboa
	2825 Monte Caparica, Portugal
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Joana Peres <jperes@garfield.fe.up.pt>

Hello!

Yes, I'm using PVM.
I'm using it to parallel a package that does Iterative Refinement of
Eigenelements of Compact Integral Operators.

I'm using a Farm of 4 DEC Alphas AXP interconnect by a FDDI-based GIGAswitch.

Bye,

Joana Peres

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Cristiano Andre da Costa <cac@akira.ucpel.tche.br>

Dear collegue,
	I used PVM until December in a work to finish my undergraduate
course. The Abstract of my work was:

	Parallel computing has been used to btain a better performance in
computer systems, as well as a good cost-benefit relation. Nowadays, with
the sequential computing technology achieving its limit, it becomes more
important to explore the parallel processing.
	Parallel computing can be explored with the use of software
environments developed specifically to this goal. Among these
environments, Parallel Virtual Machine (PVM) can be emphasized. PVM is a
software system that permits a network of heterogeneous UNIX computers to
be usde as a single large parallel computer.
	This work intends to use the distributed parallel processing with
the PVM in a network of IBM RISC/System 6000 workstations. In the study
of this environment a granularity analysis and a comparison between the
sequential and parallel processing are included.
	During this work, PVM was intalled at UCPEL (my University),
organized with samples programas and with a user's manual to help
researchers who want to use this parallel computing environment.

+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Cristiano Andre' da Costa [cac@akira.ucpel.tche.br] |
| |
| Administrador de Rede do Laboratorio de Informatica |
| Pesquisador do Nucleo de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento em Informatica |
| Universidade Catolica de Pelotas |
| (System Manager of Catholic University of Pelotas - Brazil) |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Patrik Nordling <patno@ida.liu.se>
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Yes, now and then.

> What are your application(s)?

Numerical solution of stiff ODEs, for rolling bearing dynamics.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Cluster of SPARCs, later on: Parsytec GigaCube/PowerPlus, IBM SP2, and
maybe Sun SC2000 (mostly for development).

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
>
> Your help is much appreciated.

Now problems.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Lubica Sutovska <upsylsut@savba.savba.sk>

 Dear Colleagues,
 This message contains the answers on mail we got from the PVM Project Team
 on Fri, 6 Jan 1995.

Are you using PVM today? ... Yes.

What are your application(s)? ... We participate in Copernicus Programme.
A parallel programming paradigm of contract tasks rely entirely on the PVM
system for process initialization and communication.
We are sorry, at the moment we only start with PVM tools, so we could not
send you any application now. We suppose we shall to give you a better
answer on this question in a near future.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM? ... We have
( only ) SUN4 machines, the maximum number of machines we have used
with PVM is 8.

So far for today, best whishes...

The Mapping and Monitoring Group

+----------------------------------+
| Institute of Computer Systems |
| Slovak Academy of Sciences |
| Dubravska cesta 9 |
| 842 37 BRATISLAVA, Slovakia |
| tel./fax:+42-7-371004 |
| E-mail: upsyhluc@savba.sk |
+----------------------------------+
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <Ann.Sinap@wis.kuleuven.ac.be>

Are you using PVM today?

 I'm using PVM today.

What are your application(s)?

 Parallel algoritms for the solution of
 - block tridiagonal systems of linear equations
 - eigenvalue problems (symmetric block tridiagonal, unitary block
 Hessenberg)

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

 I started with a cluster of 2 RS/6000's, afterwards I used PVM on a SP1 and
now I'm still using it on a SP2.

Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

 I would like to have some grafical tools to get an idea which processor is
 working, which processor is idle, ...

 Greetings,

 Ann Sinap

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jeff Scroggs <scroggs@math.ncsu.edu>

Are you using PVM today?

Not yet, but have a GRA who will be parallelizing a climate model this
semester using PVM.

What are your application(s)?

Semi-Lagrangian Global Circulation Model for climate predicitions.
Semi-Lagrangian Model for local weather predicitions.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Will be using a cluster of about 8 IBM RS6000 workstations.

Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

None yet, but I will suggest to the GRA that he send his comments
to you.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <gianuzzi@matgen.dima.unige.it>

About your Questions on PVM:

> Are you using PVM today?
not really today, but yesterday I did

> What are your application(s)?
Some thesys: a distributed simulator, a parallel document analizer,
a pipeline programming environment.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
4 - 5 (also more, but not efficiently)

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
More information about PVM library implementation will be welcome.
The code has very few comments.

Yours truly

Vittoria Gianuzzi

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Vittoria Gianuzzi		| E-mail: gianuzzi@matgen.dima.unige.it
DISI - Universita' di Genova	| Phone: +39 (0)10 353 8760
Viale Benedetto XV, 3 	| Fax: +39 (0)10 353 8769
16132 Genova, Italy		*

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <CUPS@VMS1.GMU.EDU>

PVM team,

I did not have a need to use pvm for last year so my feed back might not
be up to date. But a year ago a succesfully run pvm on 9 silicon graphics
machines and 10 next machines. Unfortunatelly I could run it on both
kinds of machines at the same time becouse they all share the same disk
space and make program was creating different copies of executable file in
both kinds of machines that overwrite each other. But this is the problem
with our local setup not pvm itself.
Jarek Tuszynski
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "John B. Drake" <bbd@msr.EPM.ORNL.GOV>

Using PVM for workstations and parallel code development of
the Parallel Community Climate Model (PCCM2).
-John

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Harald Ziegler <harald@fix.cadlab.de>

	Are you using PVM today? YES

	What are your application(s)? DISTRIBUTED NETS

	How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM? approx 10, SPARCS

From: BOICE@swri.space.swri.edu

Are you using PVM today?
 Yes, I occasionally use PVM in my work.
What are your application(s)?
 I have a code that solves systems of ODEs for chemical kinetics
 applications in comet and planetary atmospheres.
How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 I have used PVM on a cluster of workstations consisting of 4 IBM RS/6000s,
 2 Sun Sparcstations, and an HP RISC machine.
Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
 We found that the ethernet link was too slow for most of our applications
 so we are installing an ATM network between the workstations. We will be
 testing the performance of our improved cluster in the first quarter of
 1995 (very soon). We found that the version of Xab we used had several
 bugs and so was not useful.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Steve Moulton <moulton@cs.utk.edu>

>
> Are you using PVM today?

No, but I hope to when contract I am working under finishes.
I have used the BLACS test suite w/ PVM to debug load-dependent
network problems at this site, though.
>
> pps. We apologize if you received multiple copies of this message.
> Our first attempt at sending the message uncovered a bug in our mailer.

I only saw one.

	- Steve

---
moulton@cs.utk.edu (615) 365-3808

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <bocchino@oapa.astropa.unipa.it>

Are you using PVM today?
Yes

What are your application(s)?
2-D Hydrodynamical applications based on FCT scheme (see Reale et al.,
Nuovo Cimento B 105 (1990), 1235.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
Array of DECstations 5000 + Ethernet LAN
Array of DEC3000 (based on DEC Alpha processors) + FDDI LAN.

Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
We investigated the feasibility of using non-dedicated parallel systems
with PVM and concluded that the convenience depends essentially on the size
of the computational domain as compared to the relative processor power and
network bandwidth. We point out the software still offers great opportunities
of improvement, especially in terms of latency times in the message-passing
protocols. In condition of significant gain in terms of speed-up, such
workstation arrays represent a cost-effective approach to massive parallel
computation (see Reale, Bocchino and Sciortino, Comp. Phy. Comm. 83 (1994),
130-140.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Alan Mankofsky <ALAN@MCLAPO.SAIC.COM>

In response to the PVM survey:

Yes, I am using PVM today.

The main application area is 3D electromagnetic modeling.

The machines are primarily a Cray C-90, IBM RS/6000s, and a cluster
of i860s.

-- Alan Mankofsky
 SAIC/McLean,VA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: sandy@espsun.space.swri.edu (Sandy Nguyen)

Are you using PVM today?
yes

What are your application(s)?
FDTD for solving EM scattering problems
Probabilistic structural mechanics

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
SUN4, HPPA, RS6K
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: castalia@pirl.lpl.arizona.edu (Bradford Castalia)
>
> Are you using PVM today?
>
As a systems manager I have installed PVM to be available for user
applications. I have not had an appropriate need for PVM in my
own software, but I have been promoting its benefits and it is
being used here.

> What are your application(s)?
>
The software I have been developing would not benefit from the
parallel execution capabilities of PVM. It has been used here for
solving differntial equations by iterative methods, and, I believe,
for modeling multi-body motions.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
Primarily Suns (SPARC 2, 10, and 4/490) with occasional use
of HP 700s and Convex systems when available.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Al Stone <al@newcode.com>

>Are you using PVM today?

I have not for about four months due to a change in jobs. However, I
still stay in touch via the newsgroup and will probably soon be asked to
develop a short PVM intro course for one of my Customers.

>What are your application(s)?

Numerical analysis, predominantly.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

I used to have access to nine HP9000/735-125's on FDDI.

>Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
>Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

I can get pvm to speed up fairly well with a malloc replacement library
my company sells (the Memory Tuning System, or MTS). First, would the
University be interested in shipping a faster PVM with a portable, much
faster malloc package? Or, somehow allow us to have a reference out on
netlib or something? Second, how would one go about getting a copy of
the pvm mailing list in order to see if there are any pvm users that
would be interested?

XPVM is very nice; keep up the good work there!

PVM itself seems to be improving in quality and acceptance over time; my
fear is that it is quickly approaching the point where it has a
sufficiently large user group that we may have to start (gasp :-) paying
for it.

--
Ciao,
al

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Al Stone				 Western Office
NewCode Technology, Inc.		 Tel: 303.416.0784
2406 Newport Court			 Fax: 303.416.0753
Fort Collins, CO 80526			 E-mail: al@newcode.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: kalns@canidae.cps.msu.edu

> Are you using PVM today?

The Department of Computer Science (CPS) at Michigan State
University is using PVM, version3.3.5 at the time of this
e-mail.

> What are your application(s)?

There are a variety; here are some representative samples:
1. Workstation cluster work allocation algorithms, PVM used
 for job start/stop and message-passing among nodes.
2. Undergraduate and graduate-level courses in operating systems,
 networking, and parallel systems.
3. Various simulations for distributed-memory machines which require
 extensive inter-processor communication.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

PVM is used on over 200 Sun SPARCs and several DEC Alpha workstations
in our department.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Edgar T. Kalns		 | Internet: kalns@cps.msu.edu |
| Advanced Computing Systems Lab | Tel: (517) 353-8666 |
| A-714 Wells Hall		 | FAX: (517) 432-1061 |
| Department of Computer Science | WWW: http://web.cps.msu.edu/~kalns |
| Michigan State University | |
| East Lansing, MI 48824, USA | |
------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <rhd@Arco.COM>

We have PVM installed on a network of Risc6000's at ARCO Exploration and
Production Technology. We are not currently using it, but do plan to use
it in a reservoir simulator that will model fluid flow in porous media.
We plan on doing most of the development on a network of workstations but
expect production jobs will run on a parallel machine when the code is
available for users' applications.

-------------------------------------------------------------
Rick Dean (214) 754-6289
ARCO Exploration and Production Technology
2300 West Plano Parkway
Plano, Texas 75075

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: akwan@vulcan1.es.hac.com (Andrew Kwan 74-25 )

Are you using PVM today?

Not currently using PVM. I expect to be using a version of PVM from
Convex (ConvexPVM) in the near future.

What are your application(s)?

We would be using PVM (and/or MPI) and a high level parallel language
(Data Parallel C or C*) to prototype application software for parallel
computers. Most applications would be probably be signal or image
processing applications, which ultimately would be targeted to a
real-time, embedded parallel computer.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

We will be using PVM on workstations (either HP or Sun).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Douglas Neves Souza <GMCFEM1@VMHPO.UFF.BR>

1 - Yes
2 - Implementatio of numeric algoritms and tools for model MIMD ( Debugger )
3 - SUN ( SparcStation ) and Risk/6000

Stand by me. Always
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: fredh@dws026.cs.unr.edu (Fred Harris)
>
>Are you using PVM today?

Yes

>
>What are your application(s)?

1) I teach a Advanced Undergraduate/ Masters level course in Parallel
Computing, and use PVM as a platform to learn message passing.

2) I also do research in Parallel/Distributed processing and use PVM as
a development platform before moving things to a true parallel machine
(i860, ...)

>
>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

In the Computer Science Department we have 30 Decstation's that are
currently used.

--
Fred Harris, Jr. inet : fredh@cs.unr.edu
Computer Science Department, 	office: 302 - LME
University of Nevada - Reno 	phone : (702) 784-6571

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: rgranill@cicese.mx (Ruben Granillo Rodriguez)

Hi.
I recieved this mail from you:

Dear Colleague,
In order to improve PVM we are trying to understand how
people are using the system. Your feedback is important.
Could you take a moment to answer three questions.

Are you using PVM today?

What are your application(s)?

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

Your help is much appreciated.

Best wishes,
The PVM Project Team

The answers to your questions are as fallows.

Yes I'm using PVM.
I'm trying to parallelize a neural network algorithm "CASCOR" using PVM.
I'm using SUN machines and I've used about 10 workstations. I will install PVM
on a HP 9000.

Regards
Ruben.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Daniel Ortiz <dortiz@ECE.ORST.EDU>
>
> Are you using PVM today?

	Yes
>
> What are your application(s)?
>
	We're using PVM for research on scheduling in an heterogeneous
environment .

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
	We are using 4 SUN machines and a MEIKO computer.

email: dortiz@ece.orst.edu

	Daniel Ortiz-Arroyo
	ECE Department
	Oregon State University

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Christian Foisy <foisy@IRO.UMontreal.CA>
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Not yet, but very soon.

> What are your application(s)?

Implementation of a mostly deterministic functional SPMD language
called Caml Flight.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Approximately 10 Sparc10, running SunOS 4.1.3 and Solaris 2.3.

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

My pleasure. Keep on the good work!

By the way, I'd like to get some information on the future "context"
extension to PVM mentioned in your WWW pages. This notion seems
closely related to our notion of "wave of computation" on which we
based our programming model and formal semantics.

Regards,

Christian Foisy
--
E-mail: foisy@iro.umontreal.ca
DIRO Tel: (514) 343-5747 Fax: (514) 343-5834
 Universite' de Montre'al, I.R.O., C.P. 6128, Succ. Centre-Ville
 Montre'al, Que'bec, Canada, H3C 3J7
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Tan Tai Ann <fyp20ts@sentosa.sas.ntu.ac.sg>

i'm working on my university final year project in pvm.

my project is dealing with the load balancing in pvm environment.

currently my lab has a heterogenous plateform, consisting of SUN SPARC, R6000 and some DEC machines. however, i merely work on SUN and if time permits i will
consider to implement my applications in DEC as well.

[PS] i have one doubt about pvm and wander if u could answer me :
	does pvm itself currently support load balancing cos' i found one
	article written by Vaidy Sunderum which mention about pvm load
	balancing capability. according to him pvm could schedule its tasks
	to machines with lighter load or cpu queue. is this ture?

thanks

ann
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: 4er@primal.iems.nwu.edu (Robert Fourer)
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Not personally, though PVM is installed on our machines at
Northwestern University and can be used by students for projects.

> What are your application(s)?

PVM was used to solve a parallel version of Benders Decomposition for
solving linear programs.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

A network of about 7 Sun workstations.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: tkeyser@eng.clemson.edu (thomas k keyser)

Are you using PVM today?

Yes

What are your applications?

I am using PVM to analyze manufacturing scheduling problems. I am solving
very basic sheduling models of varying sizes, and looking for any significant
differnces in elapsed solution time, and the number of nodes investigated,
as the number of available processors, task partitioning, task allocation,
and the size of the problem to be solve changes.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

I have used PVM only over a network of SUN Workstations using SunOS. I have
used up to 50 different workstations in a master/sllave relationship. THe
type of workstations are:

			SUN SPARCstation 1+
			SUN SPARC IPC
			SUN SPARC IPX
			SUN SPARC LX
			SUN SPARC 5

TK
--
 Thomas K. Keyser 				tkeyser@eng.clemson.edu
 Industrial Engineering Department		tkeyser@clemson.clemson.edu
 Freeman Hall Room 125, Clemson University	Phone: (803)-656-0111
 Clemson, South Carolina 29634-0920		Fax: (803)-656-0795

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: barbour@gsu.cs.GaSoU.EDU (Ahmed E. Barbour)

Dear Colleague,
	Here are the answers to your questions.

Are you using PVM today? Yes

What are your application(s)? Teaching Parallel Processing course.
	Matrix Multiplication, Sorting, Searching, Solving System of Linear
	Equations using Gauss-Seidel and Conjugate Gradient methods ,..etc.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM? Network of SUN4
	workstations (about 14).

Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
	We have problem with communication among processors. Some method
	of communication is faster than another method.
	Is there study about this phenomena? and Why?

Dr. Ahmed E. Barbour
Associate Professor
Georgia Southern University
Mathematics and Computer Science Department
LB 8093
Statesboro, GA 30460-8093
Work Phone No.: (912)681-5839
Fax : (912)681-0654
Email : barbour@gsu.cs.gasou.edu

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: urata@koto.seg.kobe-u.ac.jp (Yasuhiro Urata)

Q. Are you using PVM today?

A. Yes.

Q. What are your application(s)?

A. Multi-Agent Language based on Prolog.

Q. How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

A. Sun 4, SPARCstation * 50.

---
Yasuhiro URATA,
B4, Department of Computer and Systems Engineering,
Faculty of Engineering, Kobe University

email: urata@kbixc5.seg.kobe-u.ac.jp

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: buckaroo@masc24.rice.edu (Robert Michael Lewis)

(1) Yes, I am using PVM today.

(2) I've used PVM over a network Suns, but for more serious work I use
a devoted cluster of IBM RS6000s.

(3) My applications have been parallel nonlinear programming approaches
to parameter estimation problems in the geosciences.

A bit more efficiency in the message buffering and copying overhead would
be nice. Otherwise, PVM is a very good system. From my vantage at the
NSF Center for Research for Parallel Computing, it's been interesting to
see how PVM has affected practical parallel computing.

Robert Michael Lewis
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <gwl@maths.uq.oz.au>

Are you using PVM today?
-------------------------
Yes.

What are your application(s)?
---------------------------------
I have been using PVM to cut down the workload and
time for one processor to triangulate random generated
points. One application of triangulation is for Surface
Fitting. Eg. Rainfall Data.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
-----------------------------------------------------------
I have only ever tried to use about 16 machines. They have all
been SUN machines. I think two of them have slower processors
than the others. These machines are local.

Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Well, a couple of things........
But, firstly I am not sure if these suggestions have already
been implemented...........so forgive my ignorance....

1. From the slave processor, instead of writing output to
 a temporary file when using 'write(*,*)', at times it would
 be useful to have these written straight to the screen.
 One might have each slave id number before something is written...

2. To be able to choose which machine a slave may use...
 Because, I am not sure how PVM chooses its slaves. Sometimes
 I often wonder why one particular machine is chosen even though
 it has a higher load than another? Could you please reply to this
 question.

3. I would like to know(perhaps visually??) which slaves are waiting
 for data and which are chewing away at the data...
 I know this is possible by plenty of write statements, that is why
 I have suggested visual implementation...

I can't really think of much else right now, but if I can, I will
pass these on to you.......

All the work you do is greatly appreciated here at Uni of Queensland...

Glen Lochhead BSc(Hons)
Department of Mathematics
University of Queensland
Brisbane, Australia

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: kortas@marius.univ-mrs.fr (samuel Kortas)

Hi there!

	Yes I'm using a lot PVM : I am PhD student
	working on solving the Navier Stokes Equations with some high
	precision schemes. My target machine is the T3D and the SP2, but
	I debug and program on a RS6000 Station with PVM : it keeps me
	from spending too much time (and money) on the real machines, and
	offers me a nice platform to debug my code.

	Although I use PVM, I wanted to access the shmem memory library of
	the T3D. So, instead of calling PVM directly in my code, I call my
	own subset of (very limited) instructions of communications, which
	call either PVM primitive, either T3D routines on the real machine.
	That way, I think my code stays quite portable and can sustain better
	performance on the T3D.

 pvm-survey> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are
 pvm-survey> welcome.

	Thank you very much for the great job you do on PVM!

	Would it be possible to have some global function as a
	global add or global min?
	Also it would be a blast if we could have a better parallel
	debugging tool for SPMD programs. I dream of a hack, under
	unix or emacs, to be able to put a breakpoint at a line in
	every similar program of one session PVM... In a word, a
	way of avoiding to have to jump from windows to windows to
	type in the same order in as many dbx windows as there are
	similar tasks running.

 pvm-survey> Best wishes, The PVM Project Team

	Best wishes to you too, and long life to PVM!

 ----------------------------------------------------------
 Samuel Kortas kortas@marius.univ-mrs.fr
 I.M.S.T.
 12 avenue du General Leclerc
 13003 MARSEILLE
 FRANCE
 Phone : (33) - 91 50 54 39
 Thesard C.N.R.S Fax : (33) - 91 08 16 37
 ----------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: armel@srtp.srt-poste.fr (Armel Hubert )
>
> Are you using PVM today?
 I just finished to port an application under PVM.
>
> What are your application(s)?
 It is the recognition of mail addresses : in input, a file
 with 100 bitmap images of mail envelopes, and in output, the
 zip codes.
 The goal is to approach the performances of the real system
 (multiprocessor and sort machine) which reads and sorts about
 40 000 letters/hour.
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 10 SUN (Sparcs 5 and Sparcs 10) + 1 SUN Sparc 2 with
 ethernet.

Best wishes,
Armel HUBERT
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Michel Gaudet <gaudet@baloo.ensmp.fr>

Hello !
>
> Are you using PVM today?
Yes !
>
> What are your application(s)?
Some applications in the Scientific computing area : computationnal mechanics.
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
Between 2 or 3 to 15 ; Many Sun SPARC (1 1+ 2 10 330 IPC) HP9000/735 and few IBM RS6000 (220 390).
>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
Some debugging system should be very appreciated.
>

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Michel GAUDET |
| Ecole Nationale Superieure des Mines de Paris. |
| Centre des Materiaux. B.P. 87 91003 EVRY Cedex |
| Tel (1) 60763048 FAX (1) 60763150 |
| gaudet@mat.ensmp.fr |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <kredel@krum.rz.uni-mannheim.de>

Dear PVM Project Team,

I'll try to answer your questions.

* Are you using PVM today?

 Yes

* What are your application(s)?

 Mainly for education: programming shared memory and
 distributed memory parallel computers.

* How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

 PVM is running on a KSR1 with 32 Processors and on Unix-Worksations.
 We use PVM in combination with the Pthread library on the KSR1
 and for communication between KSR1 and Workstations.

Yours Heinz Kredel

By the way: How did you know we are using PVM ?
----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Michel DAYDE <dayde@enseeiht.fr>

Are you using PVM today?
 The answer is definitively yes...

What are your application(s)?
 We use it both in training and research.

1. Training :
 We use as an example of message-passing programming environment.
We have lectures on introduction to PVM (in our university, but
we do the same lectures in courses that are funded by EEC). We use
it also for demonstrating some of the particular aspects of heterogeneous
computing. The main aspect in the PVM course are hands-on sessions.

2. Research :
 PVm is used for developing parallel codes on distributed memory computers
and clusters of workstations. These parallel codes are sparse codes
(direct and iterative solvers) and computational kernels in linear algebra,
and solution of large scale optimization problems. Note that this involves
collaborations with various labs, espceially CERFACS and RAL.

 WE are also heavily involved in parallelizing industrial codes. For example,
we have parallelized a flutter calculation code for Aerospatiale on
workstation clusters using PVM.
 We also use PVM (and PARMACS) within an ESPRIT project, called
Parallel Aero, funded by EEC. This project concerns the parallelization
of a 3D Navier-Stokes Solver and involve several partners (CERFACS, CIRA,
ENSEEIHT-IRIT, EPFL, RUS, KTH, and industrial partners that use the
code Aerospatiale and SAAB).

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 WE run PVM on a large range of workstations : DEC, IBM, HP, SUN
connected by Ethernet, FDDI, or SOCC (only some of these are in-house).
WE use it (or will soon use it) on BBN GP1000 and BBN TC2000,
CRAY T3D, KSR1, and CONVEX Exemplar.

Sincerely yours,
 Michel Dayde,
 ENSEEIHT-IRIT

~c dayde
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: tomaszl@if.pw.edu.pl (Tomasz Lukasik)

Dear PVM authors !

I've started using PVM in october.I tried it because I was very interested
how to use heterogenous network as single parallel machine.I'm fan of UNIX
(especially Linux) and everything connected with this system.I'm computer
science student at Warsaw University of Technology.In your letter one could
find me twice, so I will give to responses.
My experiences:
as tlukas@ibspan.waw.pl
I use it to write simple applications to run on cluster of SUN workstations.
I've tried to implement some well-known algorithms dedicated to parallel
machines like parallel merging, some tree-searching etc.
as tomaszl@if.pw.edu.pl
We've got only one SUN workstation and PC running Linux.I tried this
combination and it works!
I use PVM also on my PC at home ( it's a cluster containing only one host )

I'm primer PVM user so I don't have any special suggestions.

Thanks for PVM

Tomasz Lukasik
Warsaw University of Technology
Faculty of Technical Physics and Applied Mathematics
Computer Science Depatment
Warsaw Poland
email : tomaszl@if.pw.edu.pl

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <root@risc1.ing.uniroma1.it>

>Are you using PVM today?

I am starting to use PVM.

>What are your application(s)?

1) Problems in linear algebra: e.g. products of matrices of large size.
2) Performance aspects, load balancing and fault-tolerant applications.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Four IBM RISC6000's: RISC1.ing.uniroma1.it, RISC2.ing.uniroma1.it,
RISC3.ing.uniroma1.it, RISC4.ing.uniroma1.it.

 Best wishes from
 Angela Scaringella and Francesco Di Egidio
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <ncmrwf@tifac.ernet.in>
Subject: Dear colleague

 We at National Centre For Medium Range Forecasting are not
using pvm . We would like to use pvm. The computing configuration
at our centre is CRAY XMP/216 with 2xVAX 8810 & 1XVAX4300 WORKING
AS FRONT ENDS .XMP/216 is running UNICOS7 nad vax machines run
VMS 5.5 VAX 8250 act as the front end interfave between cray &
vax.
Kindly send the information how to set the code for running pvm.
Regards & wishing you a very happy new year.
 A.K.Sahoo
 pso
 ncmrwf DST

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: roosen@milenka.LTT.rwth-aachen.de (Peter Roosen)

> Are you using PVM today?

Not at the moment, as we still design the applications for it.

> What are your application(s)?

Two and three dimensional reaction cinetics calculations, parallelly
coded evolutionary algorithms

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

We intend to use Sun SparcStations (varying from Sparc2 to Sparc20 Double
Processor). If sensible, we might also put to work our OS/2 machines

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: dumiddel@brahms.informatik.Uni-Osnabrueck.DE (Uli Middelberg)

> Are you using PVM today?

Yes

> What are your application(s)?

Parallel Back-Ppropagation Algorithm for feed-forward
multilayer perceptron networks, see
http://brahms.informatik.uni-osnabrueck.de/prakt/pub/neural_nets.html

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

#########################################################################
# #
# Autor: Uli Middelberg #
# Datum: 06.09.94 letzte Aenderung 06.09.94 #
# Modul: pvm_hosts #
# pvm hosts im Informatik-LAN der Uni Osnabr"uck #
# Die relativen Geschwindigkeiten ergeben sich aus #
# der Zeitmessung meines sequentiellen bp Programms #
# f"ur das xor Problem: #
# bp -r xor.ini.mlp -t /e=10000/b xor.trn #
# #
#########################################################################
#									#
# HP 700 ################################################################
&indra			dx=/home/diplom/dumiddel/pvm3/lib/pvmd sp=41700
&rudra			dx=/home/diplom/dumiddel/pvm3/lib/pvmd sp=41700
&kali			dx=/home/diplom/dumiddel/pvm3/lib/pvmd sp=41700
# SPARC Station IPC #####################################################
&dosuni			dx=/home/diplom/dumiddel/pvm3/lib/pvmd sp=5600
# Next Cube #############################################################
&aton			so=pw dx=/home/diplom/dumiddel/pvm3/lib/pvmd sp=4200
&kankra			so=pw dx=/home/diplom/dumiddel/pvm3/lib/pvmd sp=4200
# Next Station ##########################################################
&amun			so=pw dx=/home/diplom/dumiddel/pvm3/lib/pvmd sp=4200
&anubis			so=pw dx=/home/diplom/dumiddel/pvm3/lib/pvmd sp=4200
&min			so=pw dx=/home/diplom/dumiddel/pvm3/lib/pvmd sp=4200
&atum			so=pw dx=/home/diplom/dumiddel/pvm3/lib/pvmd sp=4200
&mordor			so=pw dx=/home/diplom/dumiddel/pvm3/lib/pvmd sp=4200
&gollum			so=pw dx=/home/diplom/dumiddel/pvm3/lib/pvmd sp=4200
&sauron			so=pw dx=/home/diplom/dumiddel/pvm3/lib/pvmd sp=4200
# SUN 3/60 ##############################################################
&juno			dx=/home/diplom/dumiddel/pvm3/lib/pvmd sp=550
&jupiter		dx=/home/diplom/dumiddel/pvm3/lib/pvmd sp=550
&dionysos		dx=/home/diplom/dumiddel/pvm3/lib/pvmd sp=550
# SPARC Station 20 ######################################################
brahms			dx=/usr/local/pvm/pvm3/lib/pvmd sp=36200
# SPARC Station 10 ######################################################
haydn			dx=/usr/local/pvm/pvm3/lib/pvmd sp=28200
mahler			dx=/usr/local/pvm/pvm3/lib/pvmd sp=28200
wagner			dx=/usr/local/pvm/pvm3/lib/pvmd sp=28200
# SPARC Classic #########################################################
&joplin dx=/usr/local/pvm/pvm3/lib/pvmd sp=5600
# SPARC IPC #############################################################
&baldur dx=/usr/local/pvm/pvm3/lib/pvmd sp=5600
# SPARC ELC #############################################################
&urd dx=/usr/local/pvm/pvm3/lib/pvmd sp=10300
&magni dx=/usr/local/pvm/pvm3/lib/pvmd sp=10300
&sif dx=/usr/local/pvm/pvm3/lib/pvmd sp=10300
&loki dx=/usr/local/pvm/pvm3/lib/pvmd sp=10300

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: thomas.bahls@stud.uni-rostock.de (Thomas Bahls)
:
:Are you using PVM today?

Yes, I am. In general, I use it about three times a week.

:What are your application(s)?

self written ones (mostly Master-Slave applications) and several so called
Basic Linear Algebra Routines (e.g. ScaLapack, currently I try to install it)

:How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

homogenous RS/6000 cluster of 16 machines (including 9 workstations)

:Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

In my eyes, PVM is in a state that is nearly more user-friendly and
reliable (in terms of bugs or stability) than most other commercial
software. One very important aspect is the documentation. At our department,
the name "Jack Dongarra" stands for high quality meanwhile.
The documentation isn't only useful as a reference. It's easy to understand
and quite a new PVM user will be well prepared after reading it.
So far the good things...

There are some additional remarks for my private use of PVM.
I am connected via an Ethernet with some other PC's running Linux. We got
installed PVM 3.3 successfully. But there was little trouble compared to the
installation at our RS/6000 cluster.
Furthermore, there are some small problems using PVM at home. We all have
exported /usr/local/bin/pvm3 or mounted it with NFS at the same location.
Unfortunately we need to add the dx (?) statement to add another machine to
our configuration. That's somehow annoying because we all use the same
domain name and the same location. And what's more, we cannot start pvmgs
anyway.

Summarizing it, it may be useful to spend some time on the Linux users of PVM.

:Best wishes,

same to you !

Best regards,
Thomas.

--
Use PGP encryption to protect email with private or confidential contents
from disclosure ! To get my PGP public key, mail to tfb574@hp1.uni-rostock.de
You will get an automatically replied response.
 ,,,
 (o o)
+-----------------------------oOO--( )--OOo-----------------------------+
| |
| Thomas Bahls, Dept. of CS, University of Rostock, Germany |
| |
| private phone: +49 381 4902129, answering machine: +49 3834 501469 |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Internet (e-mail): |
| tfb574@cks1.rz.uni-rostock.de (most frequently read) |
| bahls@rz.uni-greifswald.de (no automatic reply at all) |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: frithjof@spy.fkp.physik.th-darmstadt.de (Frithjof Anders)

Dear PVM developers,

Thank you very much for your excellent program. I hav used it to
obtain all my results of the thesis. I have also encourage people to
us it too. So I am very pleased to participate in your survey

>
> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

>
> What are your application(s)?
>
I do calulate complex vertex functions for electrial and magnetical
properties in higly correlated electron systems. I have to do a lot of
threefold integrations to obtain a two dimensional complex
Vertexfunktion $\Delta(x,y)$. Im princible each point (x_i,y_j) can be
calulated via one PVM task.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
I use 3-9 IBM RS/6000 plus three DEC ULTRIX workstations. I plan to
run my monitor jobs localy on my Linux PC.

>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
I still using PVM 3.2 at the moment since I had problems to upgrade to
version 3.3. everything compliles fine, the tasks could be spawn, but
the messages sent by the tasks disapper. After my PhD exam in February
I will try your latest version of PVM and try to locate the problem.

> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

Regards Frithjof

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ___________
 | /\
Frithjof Anders |_ /_ \___
Institut fuer Festkoerperphysik | / \
TH-Darmstadt |/_____ \____________________
Hochschulstr 8
64289 Darmstadt
GERMANY
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tel +49 6151 16-5235 email: frithjof@ezra.fkp.physik.th-darmstadt.de
FAX +49 6151 16-3681 or frithjof@spy.fkp.physik.th-darmstadt.de
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <mubin@wein02.elektro.uni-wuppertal.de>

Dear Sir,

Information about my applications:

1. I am using PVM3.3 today. I have used PVM for one year.

2. My main research interest lies in parallel algorithms
 for solving linear equations on workstation cluster.
 The results are expected to be used in the simulation
 of large electrical networks.

3. I use three DECstation 5000 workstations connected
 through Ethernet.

Comments and suggestions:

My experience shows that PVM is relatively portable and
compatible; it is easy to learn and use. It is a good
parallel programming platform for workstation clusters.
However, the user wants to have a much clear PVM user's
guide, especially, clear and sufficient information about
the commands (Appendix A. Reference pages for PVM3.3
routines).

Best wishes,

Mubin

e-mail: mubin@wein02.elektro.uni-wuppertal.de
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <torkel@cs.umu.se>

Hi!

 > Are you using PVM today?
We are using PVM in some parts of our graduation thesis. The biggest
part was to analyse if it was possible to use a number of workstations,
running PVM over a ordinary network, as a large parallel machine in the
parallel computation courses.

I have to admit that our resuls are a bit depressing. In short, we need
a lot faster network to be able to using the workstations as a parallel
machine.

We will also use PVM later when converting a CONLAB-compiler from using
PICL to PVM. CONLAB is an environmemt to devolp parallel algorithms in
a MATLAB like notation.
 >
 > What are your application(s)?
We have just run some small communication and calculation intensive
testprograms.
 >
 > How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
So far we have run PVM on up to 16 IBM RS6000 (PowerPC) connected in an
ethernet network. If the time admit we will run on Sun:s and SGI indy:s, too.
If we use all machines with approximately equal computation-power we will be
using 30-40 computers.
 >
 > Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
 > Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
The only thing I can think of at the moment is some kind of
'history'- function, ala csh or tcsh, in the pvm-console.

 >
 > Your help is much appreciated.
 >
 > Best wishes,
 > The PVM Project Team
 >

Regards

/torkel

--
Bj|rn Torkelsson Dept. of Computing Science, Ume} University
Email: torkel@cs.umu.se URL: http://www.cs.umu.se/~torkel/
Phone: +46 90 169948 Fax: +46 90 166126
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Tara Matise <tm120@columbia.edu>

> Are you using PVM today?

No today but was using it prior to Sept and will use it again.

>
> What are your application(s)?
>
A LISP shell which calls C-code - the C-code is interfaced with PVM. The
project is automated construction of genetic linkage maps. References
include Matise et al, Nature Genetics, April 1994, and Matise et al,
Human Heredity, in press.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
At most 25 machines, 2 Hps, 2 sun sparc10s, 6 dec5100s, and 15 SUn IPC or
IPX machines. Usually use 12, 2 HPs, 2SUN Sparc10, 2 SUn IPC, 6 DEC.

*************************************************************************
Tara Cox Matise,Ph.D. E-mail: tm120@columbia.edu
Columbia University phone: 212-960-2428
Department of Psychiatry fax: 212-568-2750
 (Statistical Genetics Group) WWW: http://www.cs.pitt.edu:80/~matise
722 West 168th Street, Unit 58
New York, NY 10032

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: bannov@ciao.eng.wayne.edu (Nikolai Bannov tel 1-313-3656159)

Are you using PVM today?
Yes

What are your application(s)?
Monte Carlo simulation of the crystall growth and electron transport

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
6 Sparc stations-10

N. Bannov
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Istituto di Matematica per la R.O." <ricopa@cere03.cere.pa.cnr.it>

1) Yes, I'm using PVM.
2) Financial application.
3) Between 3-16 machines on IBM Risk, Dec Alpha and PC Intel with OS Linux.

Improvement: I would appreciate if you could build a release of PVM for
the multiprocessors machines by nCube. Actually, only Linda by SCA
is available on nCube.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: BUZZI SPRC/LEPH <buzz@rubens.cad.cea.fr>

Dear Colleagues,

With pleasure I answer to your questions :

1 - I'm not still using PVM, but I will use it later during this year.

2 - The applications will be some large codes for neutronic calculations
 with variational nodal method in reactor physics analysis.

3 - The machines I will use will be: IBM-SP2, CRAY-T3D and perhaps QUADRICS
 and workstation network (IBM-RISC/6000).

Best wishes,
 Gabriel BUZZI

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Mr FS Lein <fsl@ymp8.rl.ac.uk>

***** PVM survey

Hello,

I am using PVM on T3D in Edinburgh.
My main application is CFD (Computational
Fluid Dynamics).

Regards,

Fue-Sang Lien

email: fsl@ymp8.rl.ac.uk

(UMIST)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: guo@meindigo.esrd.com (Guo)

Are you using PVM today? Yes.

What are your application(s)? pversion finite element analysis.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM? 5 machines, SGI, HPPA, RS6K, SUn4.

Xian-Zhong Guo

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: c1jrt@supernova.gsfc.nasa.gov (John R. Thorp)

 Are you using PVM today?
YES

 What are your application(s)?
CFD (PPM), MANY BODY TREE ALGORITHMS, IMAGE PROCESSINGGLOBAL CIRCULATION MODEL

 How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
SGI, T3D, CONVEX, CRI/EL, MICROVAX/MASPAR MP1
CALLED FROM C OR FORTRAN 77

 Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

* CLARK MOBARRY AND I HAVE DEVELOPED A PACKAGE WHICH ALLOWS A PROGRAMMER TO
WRITE PVM PROGRAMS IN A "HOSTLESS" FORM FOR A NET WORK OF WORKSTATIONS.
THESE PROGRAMS ARE THEN ABLE TO BE PORTED TO THE T3D WITH MINIMUM EFFORT.

* START SUPPORTING MPI. MANY SITES VIEW MPI AS THE "NEXT GENERATION" OF
PVM. THE CAPITAL DISTRICT HAS AT LEAST ONE UPCOMMING PROCUREMENT WHICH
WILL PROBABLY REQUIRE MPI. A CRAY SUPPORTED MPI WOULD LOOK BETTER ON A
BID THAN AN ACADEMIC VERSION.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Hasegawa Hidehiko <hasegawa@ulis.ac.jp>

Are you using PVM today? Yes, but I'm staying UTK.

What are your application(s)? Numerical Linear Algebra.
 I'm making some parallel tridiagonal solvers.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM? Some RS6K and
 some SUN4

hasegawa@ulis.ac.jp
hasegawa@cs.utk.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "John M. Tyler" <TYLER@LSUVM.SNCC.LSU.EDU>

We are using PVM in materials simulations, reservoir simulations, fluid
flow, and FEM applications.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jean-Michel.Lepine@labri.u-bordeaux.fr (Jean-Michel LEPINE)

Subject: PVM survey

Are you using PVM today?	Yes

What are your application(s)?	essentialy implementation of multiprocessor
				environment

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?	Sun worstations

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jean-Michel LEPINE Laboratoire Bordelais de Recherche en Informatique
my email: <lepine@OLRIK.LABRI.U-BORDEAUX.FR>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Al Hynd <al@amsoft.demon.co.uk>

Re: Your survey.

Please note that you mailed me at my old email address which
was al@andltd.and.nl. Now that we have our own email feed you
should use the correct address: al@amsoft.demon.co.uk

We are not using PVM on a regular basis. It has been (and will
be) used mainly for research and investigation purposes. It is
something that we would spend more time on if time was available.

Application for PVM is investigation of a parallel branch and
bound algorithm. This is used for solving large mixed integer
programming problems.

The only machines that we have used are 2 Sun Sparc computers
running SunOS 4.1

Generally we were quite impressed with the ease of use but it
did take some time to get access to the manual - we don't have
a postscript printer. Is it also available as ASCII.

regards

Al Hynd
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Antoine Tabary" <atabary@VNET.IBM.COM>

 First of all thank you for a great product.

 I am using pvm mainly to run customer codes on IBM 9076 SP2.
 I find it a great tool in teaching message passing techniques.

 Sorry, I don't have much to say.

 Antoine Tabary
 IBM France
 atabary at vnet.ibm.com

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Aaron Golden <aag@physics.dcu.ie>
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Currently no, but there is scope within the next 6-12 months that it will be
implemented on our network of HP Workstations

>
> What are your application(s)?

Modelling of low pressure low temperature plasmas, of great interest to the
semiconductor and other hi-tech manufacturers.

Cheers,

Aaron Golden, Comp. Physics Group, Dublin City University, Ireland.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: vhatman@eng.clemson.edu (victor g hatman)

I am using PVM and I intend to use it a lot more in the future.

My applications are oriented towards computational dynamics. I have
adapted the spmd example, to build a tree architecture which allows
the simulations for multibody systems of flexible contacting bodies.
The numerical algorithm is, in principle, an asynchronous relaxation
method for differential systems of equations.

The machines are SUN workstations (SPARC IPC, SPARC LX, SPARC 5) running
the SUN operating system. The number of machines I have used until now is
ten, but I intend to expand it in the future.

Victor Hatman
Graduate Student
Mechanical Engineering Department
Clemson University
Clemson, SC 29634-0921

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: John Horn <jhorn@calvin.ease.Arco.COM>

> Are you using PVM today?
>
I personally am not. We as a company are using PVM; Chuck Mosher is the primary
developer of our PVM applications. Chuck in in your address list as ccm@arco.com.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: sidimar@lafexSu1.lafex.cbpf.br (Sidimar Quezada Leite)

Are you using PVM today?

Yes

What are your application(s)?

with optimization systems.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

10 or more, at SUN's and SP/1.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: schiotz@fysik.dtu.dk (Jakob Schiotz)
 > Are you using PVM today?

Not any longer, I switched to use the native message passing system.

 >
 > What are your application(s)?
 >

Analysis of Molecular Dynamics simulations

 > How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 >

Mostly a CM-5E, but also Sun SPARC workstations

 > Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
 > Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
 >

The reason I "left" PVM is that I was running a Master/Slave program
on a CM-5 where most communication was between the master and the
slave. Using CMSSL the communication goes like this:

	[Master (Front end)]	<---> [Slave (Node)]

With PVM:

	[Master (F.E.)] <---> [pvmd (F.E.)] <--->
		[PVM Host program (F.E.)] <---> [Slave (Node)]

And, even worse: The Master could send data so fast that pvmd couldn't
pass it on fast enough, so it grew and grew until memory became very
short.

But I must say that I am glad that I made the program in PVM first.
Debugging on our local workstations probably more than halved the
developing time, and then it was very easy to port the working
application to CMSSL. If I am ever again going to write a message
passing program on a MMP, I'll seriously consider writing and
debugging it in PVM, and then port it if necessary.

Thanks for making PVM available.

Jakob Schiotz ! Center for Atomic-scale
CAMP, Physics Department ! Materials Physics (CAMP):
Technical University of Denmark !
DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark ! http://www.fysik.dtu.dk/
schiotz@fysik.dtu.dk !

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: mike@hobbs.chem.usu.edu (mike emmel)

I am intrested in converting PVM into objective C and C++ so that it
works in the distributed object format that is avialable with
NeXTStep. And should work with any Unix station. I will discuss this
project with you in the future if your intrested.

Mike
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: destri@otello (Giulio Destri)

 From: Dr. Giulio Destri, PhD Student
 Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione
 Universita' degli Studi di Parma
 43100 Parma - Italy

 TO:
 PVM Project Team
 pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu

Dear Colleagues,

We apologize for our late in answering. Here you can find our answer
(and some question).

> Are you using PVM today?
Here at our departement we are starting now to using PVM.

> What are your application(s)?
I am a PhD student in Computer Engineering and my Interests are
Application of Parallel and Distributed systems to Computer
Vision problems.
I work together with Paolo Marenzoni,
another PhD student, whose interests are
Massive Parallel Systems performance study and analisys and
Petri Nets, and with some undergraduate students,
Stefano Brozzi, Andrea Menozzi and Cristina Molinari.
Our interests are fundamentally two:
1. Using the PVM to obtain a MIMD distributed solution for
 very big Petri Nets.
2. The use of PVM to integrate some distributed Image Processing
 tools, expecially AVS.
 We read on the Web page of Computer Graphics Unit of
 Manchester Computing Centre, University of Manchester,
 United Kingdom the summaries of the results of the Summer
 Projects made at Computer Graphics Unit in 1993 and 1994 and we
 think that the following two projects are particularly interesting:

 1) Andrew Banks (1993) " A 30-page tutorial on parallel AVS "

 2) David Bancroft (1994) " Parallel AVS on HP/Silicon Graphics using PVM "

 We would like to know if more information about these projects, or
 about others concerning these arguments, are available via ftp or Web
 (we were unable to find them on Web pages) or if at least you can mail
 us the involved people's E-mail (if they have one) so that we can contact
 them directly.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
We have installed PVM v. 3.3.6
on a series of SPARC stations with various processors
and memory configurations, and we have encountered some problems.
To save disk space we have installed PVM in the directory /usr/local/pvm3,
setting correctly the PVM_ROOT and PVM_ARCH environment variables.
1. The compilation under SOLARIS 2.0 stops, with some library not found
 complain.
2. Under SunOS 4.1.2 all seem to work, but not always.
3. Under SunOS 4.1.3 we have some problems at run time, i.e. the spawn
 does not always work, with no apparent cause.
4. When we tried to install (unpacking the tar file) the HeNCE program
 some strange link errors (i.e. ldopen not found...) appeared in the
 successive compilations.

Could you help us to solve these problems?

Thanks in advance.

Best Regards,

 Giulio Destri (destri@ce.unipr.it)
 Paolo Marenzoni (marenz@ce.unipr.it)
 Stefano Brozzi (brozzis@ce.unipr.it)
 Andrea Menozzi (menozzia@ce.unipr.it)
 Cristina Molinari (molicri@ce.unipr.it)

--

+------------------------------------+----------------------------------------+
| Giulio Destri 					 |
| Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione phone +39 521 905708/722 |
| Universita' degli Studi di Parma fax +39 521 905723 |
| 43100 Parma - Italy E-mail destri@ce.unipr.it |
| 					 or destri@cm2.unipr.it |
+------------------------------------+----------------------------------------+

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: carltonr@physics.mtsu.edu (Robert F. Carlton)
>
> Are you using PVM today?

	Not today...but I am trying to install it on our
local network at MTSU physics department. I took a course
in our computer science department last Spring (94) on parallel
computing, and we used PVM for the first half of the course.
>
> What are your application(s)?

	I would be using PVM to farm out some of the massive
number crunching O(x^3) for a program which calculates and plots
neutron resonances.
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

	A few. VAX, DEC Stations, RISC.

	Suggestion: I am having one heck of a time getting
PVM installed. Maybe some directions would be nice?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Timothy Williams" <williams@elvis.llnl.gov>
>
> Are you using PVM today?
>
Yes

> What are your application(s)?
>
Particle-in-cell simulations (plasmas and groundwater contaminant chemicals),
ADI algorithms, banded linear systems solvers.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
About 4: T3D, NOW's (Sun, SGI), SMP's (Sun)

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
>
More performance information would be useful (e.g., what latencies and
bandwidths to expect from SUNMP implementation). Provision of cpu-time and
wall-time timer functions within the PVM library would be *extremely* useful,
though very difficult I realize (would require PVM authors to implement C and
Fortran bindings to highest-resolution clock functions for every supported
hardware type).

--
O=============================================================================O
| Tim Williams (williams@elvis.llnl.gov 510-423-6278) |
O=============================================================================O

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: ajohnson@math.ukans.edu (Aaron M. Johnson)

 > Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

 > What are your application(s)?

I am currently developing a program to solve spin waves. Simulating a
piece of magnetic tape as a pseudo 2-D surface of vectors(rods)
pointing in the direction of the rods spin axis. There is heavy
communication between neighbor rods and the size of the blocks to
break the computation into needs to be optimized. Space parallization
is all I have implemented so far, but I hope to get far enough to also
implement time parallization methods with multigrid. But development
is going slow.

 > How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

I have used it on a network of 16 SUN4 machines, and a stand alone
LINUX platform. But I'm having trouble spawning slaves in LINUX, so
my experience is limited.

 > Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

I'm new to C and to parallel computing. I am also a undergrad looking
for "summer opportunities". If there is some way for you to
put me in touch with people offering internships, workshops, and such,
by all means pass this along. Also, I would like to find more people at my
level to correspond with. The newsgroup seems inapporpiate
for this. Or am I wrong?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: PULAY@UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU

(1) As of this moment, we only tried PVM but are not using it. We plan to use
it soon.
(2) We would like to run ab initio NMR chemical shielding calculations
(quantum chemistry)
(3) We have a cluster of 11 IBM RISC/6000 workstations.
 Sincerely Peter Pulay
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: mneideng@ugcs.caltech.edu (Mark L. Neidengard)
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Not currently, although I've used it in the past and will probably do so again
in the future (studenthood being an unpredictable thing).
>
> What are your application(s)?

I've used the PVM version of the Povray rendering package; I've also used
PVM for assignments in classes on parallel programming. I also help maintain
the PVM distribution for users of my site's Intel Paragon supercomputers.
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

I've used clusters of dozens of HP 9000/7xx machines, as well as assorted
Sparcstations and Sparcservers, and on the Intel Paragon platform.

--
/!\/!ark /!\!eidengard, CS Major, VLSI. http://www.ccsf.caltech.edu/~mneideng
"Fairy of sleep, controller of illusions" Operator/System Administrator, CCSF
"Control the person for my own purpose." "Don't mess with the Dark Elves!"
 -Pirotess, _Record_of_Lodoss_War_ Shadowrunner and Anime Addict
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: ching@indigo.na.ntu.edu.tw (Chao-Ching Fang)

>Are you using PVM today?
NO. We just setup the PVM environment now. We will try to use the PVM recently.
>What are your application(s)?
We will write some program involved CFD in the PVM environment.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
We have setup 2 kind of machines and 8 total machines in our sites.

Thanks for the peoples that working for PVM.
-----------------------------------
 Fang, Chao-Ching.
Institute of Naval Architecture |
 and Ocean Engineering, | ching@indigo.na.ntu.edu.tw
 National Taiwan University. | E-mail: ching@indy.na.ntu.edu.tw
 Taipei, Taiwan, R. O. C. | ching@cfdlab.na.ntu.edu.tw
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: chpoin <m8301538@chpi.edu.tw>
>
> Are you using PVM today?
			 YES !
>
> What are your application(s)?
			 	We use it to practice designing the parallel's
				and distribution system's program.
 				Forward, may be use it for image process and
				shared load.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

				HP ----> 10
 			 SUN ----> 15
			 DEC ----> 5

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Dr.Blaszczyk (Dr.Bl)" <ab@decrc.abb.de>

Dear Colleagues,

Here are some answers to your pvm-survey-questions.

Are you using PVM today?

 Yes.

What are your application(s)?

 We developed parallel solver for 3D electrostatic field calculations
 This solver is used also by designers of high voltage insulation in ABB
 The parallel computation with PVM allow to use the existing hardware
 and to achieve the speed up of the design process. The software is used
 by R&D departments in production sites as well as in ABB Corporate
 Research Centers.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

 We are using workstation clusters including Sun, IBM RS6k, and HP 700.
 Our application is not very dependent from the communication speed
 so we can use standard ethernet for communication (provided that it
 is not overloaded) We are currently using not more than 10 workstations
 in a cluster. An important problem for us is good reliability of
 calculations in heterogeneous clusters - the calculation must go on
 even if one of workstations fails.
 We are going now to implement our solver for IBM SP2.

Best Regards

A. Blaszczyk

******************************************
Andreas Blaszczyk, ABB Corporate Research
Speyerer Str. 4, 69115 Heidelberg, Germany
Tel: +49 6221 596409, Fax: +49 6221 596513
e-mail: ab@decrc.abb.de
******************************************
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Parallel VM <pvm@risc.uni-linz.ac.at>

Dear Colleagues,

I am glad to answer to your questions.

Yes - I am currently using PVM (though, to say the truth, I am considering the
possibility to reconfigure the applications towards the MPI standard).

The use of PVM concerns a parallel distributed kernel for a C++ math library;
such a kernel provides basic primitives for local and remote activation of
parallel tasks. The thread-based nature of the library is somehow conflicting
with the non-reentrancy of the PVM code; this is one of the main reasons for
considering a passage to MPI.

At the moment, PVM is used in a test version of the library, running on a
Sequent Symmetry machine. Very soon we plan to export the library to a set
of Silicon Graphics workstations. The final step will be exporting it to an
SP-2 environment - but this will take some time.

Hope it is useful. Best wishes,

 Piergiorgio Bertoli

 pbertoli@risc.uni-linz.ac.at
 pvm@risc.uni-linz.ac.at

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <pvmh@risc1.ing.uniroma1.it>

>Are you using PVM today?

I am starting to use PVM.

>What are your application(s)?

1) Problems in linear algebra: e.g. products of matrices of large size.
2) Performance aspects, load balancing and fault-tolerant applications.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Four IBM RISC6000's: RISC1.ing.uniroma1.it, RISC2.ing.uniroma1.it,
RISC3.ing.uniroma1.it, RISC4.ing.uniroma1.it.

 Best wishes from
 Angela Scaringella and Francesco Di Egidio
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: HIRONAKA Tetsuo <hironaka@csys.ce.hiroshima-cu.ac.jp>

survey> Are you using PVM today?
Yes, but not everyday.

survey> What are your application(s)?
Network performance evaluation of PVM applications.

survey> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
network of 130 machines, all Sun Sparc LX.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Tetsuo HIRONAKA			Faculty of Computer Sciences
Hiroshima City University	Hiroshima, 731-31, JAPAN

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Ugo Becciani (+39 95) 7332217 <UBECCIANI@CT.ASTRO.IT>

About PVM
I am using PVM today (vers. 3.2)
The application that I use is a parallel N-Body tree code (developed by myself)
I use 1 Convex C210 machine and 8 Sun SparcStation

thank you in advance
Ugo Becciani.
UBECCIANI@astrct.ct.astro.it
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Clayton Heller <cheller@uni-sw.gwdg.de>

To whom it may concern,

In regards to your request for information on PVM usage:

I have developed an interactive orbit analysis code which uses
version 3 of PVM. It finds, as a function of energy, all of the
characteristic periodic orbits in a rotating non-axisymmetric
potential and determines their
stability. It will also produce, for a given energy, a phase space
map showing the regions of stability and chaos. This information is
used to understand gas flows in barred galaxies. The algorithm
uses a fairly sophisticated load balancing scheme which allows for
efficient operation in a heterogeneous environment with processors
of widely varying speed and load. It is also robust in the sense that
the loss of processors during the run will not affect the computation.

I have been running at the University of Kentucky (for about three years)
on a collection of
Sun, HP, and Decstation workstations. Unfortunately, since my arrival
in Gottingen Germany I have not been able to get PVM to work on a
network of Dec Alphas. Version 3.2.6 would not compile on one machine,
compiled on another but would not spawn the pvm deamons. I installed
3.2.5 and got it to compile and start up, but it would not start
my slave processes (just froze). As I have been busy on other things
lately, I have not tried anything else or contacted anyone. I will try
again later this month and if I still have trouble will e-mail your
group for help.

Clayton Heller

--
--------------------------------------------------------
| Clayton H. Heller | Universitaets - Sternwarte |
| Karen S. Heller | Geismarlandstrasse 11 |
| Nyssa ?. Heller | D-37083 Goettingen |
| | |
| heller@uni-sw.gwdg.de | XX-49-551-39-5049 (Work) |
| XX-49-551-7-22-83 (H) | XX-49-551-39-5043 (Fax) |
--------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Leszek Opalski p254B t7877" <OPALSKI@ipe.pw.edu.pl>

Yes, I am using PVM with my student for speeding up multiple
simulation of electronic circuits. The need arises eg. when we perform
statistical performance evaluation of a circuit, or do optimization.
In our applications certain number of circuit analyses are needed
before a decision is made (by an algorithm or by a human). Parameters
for these analysis can differ slightly (eg. in sensitivity analysis)
or substancially (eg. in Monte Carlo). We try to deal with both
situations, although so far the second is investigated more. We
have plans for using PVM for speeding up simulations related to
noise phenomena in circuits.
We use PVM on different SparcStation machines of Sun (with single
CPU) under Solaris2. PVM serves us as an interface standard for
distributed programming and as a quality library that implements that
standard. So far we have not experimented with fine-grain
parallelization, because of our hardware, but it is good to
know it is there when we have resources and a need.

Thank you for releasing the package to the public,

 Dr Leszek Opalski
 The Institute of Electronics Fundamentals
 Warsaw University of Technology
 Warsaw, Poland.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: hillcoat@eurodem.uk.convex.com (Adrian Hillcoat)
>
> Are you using PVM today?
Yes
>
> What are your application(s)?
Many and various - benchmark codes

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
HP workstations
Convex Exemplar
Convex C-Series
>

Adrian
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Jeffrey J Quisenberry" <jquisenb@mason1.gmu.edu>

1) Currenty using PVM for distributed OS and machine learning projects.

2) Not using any full-blown applications; just writing my own code. Last
project was OS process scheduler; next project likely a neural network.

3) I've only used PVM on the Sun workstations in the SITE lab so far,
but I am setting up PVM for SGI workstations in my business office.
(Specifics: 1 2xR4400 Challenge, 1 R4400 Challenge, 2 R4000 Indys, 1
R4400 Indy so far; more to come.)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: tng@info.ucl.ac.be (Nguyen Thang)
>
> Are you using PVM today?
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Yes.

>
> What are your application(s)?
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Research on disritibuted constraint satisfaction algorithms.
Constraint satisfaction algorithms are namely used as kernel of Constraint
Logic Programming (CLP) systems.
Parallization of these algorithms can increase the performance of CPL
systems.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

1. 18 Sun Sparc ELC workstations connected bu an Ethernet.
2. 8 HP PA-RISC 9000/735 and a Convex Metaserie C3820 connected by a FDDI.
3. Convex Exemplar with 16 nodes.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: John Holdzkom <holdzkom@ccpo.odu.edu>

I do not currently use PVM, although I may resume using it
in the future.

It was used in a particle-in-cell model for simulations of
mesoscale features, such as eddies and coastal fronts in
oceanography.

PVM was mostly used on a network of Sun workstations, although
some experimentation was done with PVM on a Cray T3D.

At this time, our problem does not require PVM. We found that
each workstation finished its task quickly, while packing, sending,
and receiving messages consumed more time. Network traffic was
a major culprit of this.

John Holdzkom
Center for Coastal Physical Oceanography
Old Dominion University
holdzkom@ccpo.odu.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "dr. Vincenzo Di Martino CASPUR c/o Univ. Roma1 tel 00396-49913857" <vincenzo@montecristo.caspur.it>

> Are you using PVM today?
>What are your application(s)?

Yes I am using it for molecular dynamics applications

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Alpha cluster 8 cpu connected via fddi gigaswitch,
SP2 8 thin nodes,
Cray t3d (externally owned machine) planned for next weeks.

best regards _____Vincenzo
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: hanson@houston.vni.com (Richard Hanson)

Are you using PVM today? Yes

What are your application(s)? Training myself to use distributed
computing and grapple with the issues.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM? Arrays
of work stations, Cray T3D (a little).

Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
The fact that pvm is not Fortran 90 standard-complying was
initially irksome and had to be overcome with writing modules
for making the interface to some routines "generic."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: neri@di.unito.it (Filippo Neri)

Dear Sirs,

I am currently using pvm3 on a CM5, here I have the following problem.

I have communications between a process on the host and the other
processes on the partitions. Every time a new communication of this
kind happens, there is a new allocation of memory on the hosts.
BUT NO FREE of the previous one!!!
So in the long runs, the whole process run out of memory!!

Do you have any suggestion for helping me with this problem?

Thanks.

Filippo Neri
Ph. D. Student

Dipartimento di Informatica
Universita' di Torino
ITALY

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Saridakis Titos <sarid@ics.forth.gr>

I am using PVM for almost a year.

I have used it for exercises in Parallel Programming course,
exercises in Distributed Computing course and currently
I am using it in the implementation of a technique for
trace-collection of programs written in Fortran+PVM which
is actually my master thesis topic.

Machines that I've used PVM on are:
2 DEC-Stations
up to 15 DEC-ALPHAs
up to 10 SUN-3 and SUN-4 machines.

			Titos.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Dan Fox <fox@vulcan.nrlssc.navy.mil>

I recently received a query from you about our PVM usage. I've
been out sick, so hopefully this is not too late!

Are you using PVM today?

	Yes.

What are your application(s)?

	1. Distributed version of the POVRAY raytracer. We generate
	 a large number of raytraced scenes for scientific visualization
	 and occasionally use a PVM-ized version of the code which was
	 done by Brad Kline at Cray (patches available at ftp.povray.org)

	2. A C language extension called "Glenda" was built on top of
	 PVM. For "normal" users, this greatly eases the overhead
	 involved in learning PVM. Using Glenda (and therefore
	 indirectly using PVM), I wrote some codes to examine the
	 efficiency of using the local Sun network to do some tasks
	 like optimal interpolation. These are mostly toy codes so
	 far though.

	3. In the works: one of our contractors is writing a PVM-ized
	 version of an ocean circulation model. The goal is to have
	 a code which will run on the T3D, SP2, and local Sun network
	 as needed.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

	Successful: a network of Suns of various types (mostly
		Sparc2, 10, and 20's)

	Unsuccessful: between a Sparc10 and a Cray YMP.

Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

	Some method of load balancing would be useful. I
	try to use agenda methods to divide up problems so that
	slow machines end up doing fewer parts, but this is not
	always possible. Ideally (and this would be asking a lot!)
	some sort of process migration where jobs would "shift"
	to idle machines would be available.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: keith.vaughn@gtri.gatech.edu (Keith D. Vaughn)
>
>Are you using PVM today?
>

Current use is on hold.

>What are your application(s)?
>

Finite Difference codes.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>

Sparc1000 and Sparc20 systems.

>Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

Our main concern with PVM is that current tests on a ATM network showed we
could only get a factor of 2 improve in performance from our 10BaseT
network.
Since the ATM network is more than 2 times faster, we need to resolve if
the system software or PVM is the bottleneck.
Any suggestions would be helpful.

Keith D. Vaughn
Georgia Tech Research Institute - Signatures Technology Laboratory
Email: keith.vaughn@gtri.gatech.edu
Voice: (404)894-7235 FAX: (404)894-7227
Postal Mail: GTRI/STL, CRB Rm 582, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA 30332

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: zhiwang@ece.UCSD.EDU (Zhi Wang)

Yes, I am still using PVM. I use it for magnetohydrodynamic simulation and
particle simulation in the field of space physics. I have used it on clustered
Sun workstations, Intel paragon, Cray-T3d, and IBM-SP1. I also helped people
use it on Clustered HP workstation. I am very satisfied with PVM because of its
portability. Yours sincerely, Z. Wang
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Kevin Murray" <kp.murray@ulst.ac.uk>

Dear Survey,

> Are you using PVM today?
Yes. One of our final year students is using PVM as the basis for her
project.

> What are your application(s)?
Final year projects. (Later into final year teaching modules)

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
So far our mainly our three Sparcstation 10 clones although the
student hopes to use machines at other campuses and other
universities including a Cray and a Meiko.

Kevin
====================================================================
Kevin Murray | KP.Murray@ulst.ac.uk
Faculty of Informatics | kevin@causeway.infc.ulst.ac.uk
University of Ulster | http://www.infc.ulst.ac.uk/~kevin/
Cromore Road, Coleraine, | Tel: 01265 44141 x 4243
Londonderry, N. Ireland. | FAX: 01265 40916
====================================================================
From: James E Gubernatis <jeg@kaiser.lanl.gov>
 >
 > Are you using PVM today?
Yes.
 > What are your application(s)?
Quantum Monte Carlo simulations fo systems of intearacting electrons.
 > How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
Two configurations: a deicated cluster of IBM R600s and a LAN of the
various versions of Sun 4s.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: haim@decmop16.hai.iec.co.il (HAIM)

Dear PVM-Team People,

 First of all, Thanks for addressing us. It's our pleasure to take part

 in this survey and contribute to your project (some results from our

 experience with it), as it appears to be a quiet usefull one.

 Here are the answers to your 3 questions:

 1. Yes, we are using PVM for the last few months. we're evaluating the usage

 in terms of Total Time Consumption when making our computations, and so far

 the results are quiet promising, showing improvements that fit our needs.

 2. The main application we use with PVM was developed in our company (Israel

 Electric Corporation - Research & Development department).

 This application is using changing sets of restrains and field-conditions

 to plan an "annual time-schedule for all maintenance operations" in power-stations

 and power-units all over the country.

 3. We are using different numbers of machines each time, depending upon the "load"

 on machines and through our network. We've checked this system upto 16 machines

 simoultaneuously (it looks o.k.) but for getting good results, we've experienced

 that 6 to 9 machines are better and sometimes even less (this is influenced also

 by our network conditions).

 The important issue, from our point of view, is that we are using mixed

 combinations of:
			Decstations 5000/240 (running Ultrix 4.3)
			&
			Digital Alpha work-stations (running OSF 1.3 or 1.2).

						best wishes for future success

						H.Ruttner - Computer system team

						R&D	 - 	I.E.C

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Henrik Lauf Christensen <lauf@iesd.auc.dk>

During the last semester I have participated in a group where we have made an
evaluation of PVM.

In doing this we have made two application and some synthetic benchmarks. The
two application benchmarks were:

	1: Raytracing. This was done by putting a PVM-shell around POV-ray.
	 The achieved speedup was 19.

	2: Game of Life. The achieved speedup was 26 with a large board
	 consisting of 2000x2000 squares. With smaller boards the speedup
	 was below 1, mainly due to poor performance of Ethernet.

The conclusion for the application benchmarks were, that PVM is only suited for
coarse-grained applications, because communication over network is *very* slow.
We had no particulary load balancing, and belive a more efficient load balan

...continuing broken mail.

cing would have increased the achieved speedup somewhat.

The synthetic benchmarks were designed to measure the performance of PVM's
message-passing via Ethernet and found that PVM introduced some overhead in
the magnitude of 2 to 5 times.

We have around 120 SUN workstations available at the campus running SUN4 and
SUN4SOL2. We experineced some problems when trying to connect more than 50
workstations. We either could not add more machines or we lost connection to
them. Wheter this was due to the many experiments on the workstations and the
network or PVM, we do not know.

(speedup in the two application benchmarks was achieved with 50 workstations).

best wishes

lauf@iesd.auc.dk

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: teopam@garm.teokem.lu.se (Per-AAke Malmquist)

I am not using PVM at present, but probably will start using it
within a few weeks. It will then be used with an IBM SP2
(RS 6000 processors, AIX operating system).

I have tried PVM, a year and a half ago, just running a couple
of RS6000/550:ies as one virtual machine, communicating on
an Ethernet, but this was just to see how it worked. It did.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: teompf@garm.teokem.lu.se (Markus Fulscher)

 Dear Colleague,

 I am a member of the department of Theoretical Chemistry at the
 University of Lund (Sweden). Recently, we started a project aiming
 at the parallelization of our programs - the software package is
 called MOLCAS and is available for various machines. The goal is
 to rewrite the programs in such a way that they can be run on
 distributed as well as shared memory machines. The specific
 architectures we have in mind are heterogeneous networks such as
 clusters of work stations, the IBM/SP2 and SGI's parallel work stations.
 As PVM is de facto a standard running almost any UNIX based computers
 it is the natural choice to solve the communication problem. Moreover,
 as IBM, SGI and other vendors offer machine specific implementations
 of PVM tuned for maximum efficiency portability is granted.

 An other standard that may be used to reach our goal is MPI.
 At present we think, however, MPI is to complex to be used in
 a straight forward way. Moreover, to my knowledge not to many
 vendors offer products based on the MPI standard.

 As PVM is a rather simple tool it misses several features of
 importance with respect to the development of new codes such as
 powerful monitors to watch the performance of the program. Because
 of that we are using IBM's PE which is based on the MPI standard
 as a development toolkit (a transparent interface is under
 development).

 M. Fuelscher

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Hanns-Peter Maesel <Hanns-Peter.Maesel@regent.e-technik.tu-muenchen.DE>

1. Yes, I'm using PVM today.

2. The application is a simulation of the signalling system no.7 (ISDN)

3. I have been using up to eight dec stations both with mips processors
and alphas

______________________________________________________
Hanns-Peter Maesel
Institute of Electronic Design Automation
Technische Universitaet Muenchen
------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Rayd Mohr <mohr@nmlab.informatik.fh-dortmund.de>

>>Are you using PVM today?
Yes, I am. I am doing my master`s thesis on the base of PVM.

>>What are your application(s)?
I'm just ready with installing PVM and trying to understand its internal
features (things that PVM users usually do not have to know). I will
distribute a huge application which will include most likely cpu intensive
problems as well as image processing.

>>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
The machines available for use under PVM at our college are:
	-1 SUN4
	-14 SUNs running SOLARIS 5.3
	-1 HPPA.
There is also a SUNMP with 4 processors but we have some technical (non-PVM)
problems with getting it running.

I hope this information will help you.
Bye,
	Raymond Mohr.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jon Woodcock <J.P.Woodcock@qmw.ac.uk>

> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

> What are your application(s)?

Particle simulations of Space Plasmas

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

5-10 SUN4 / SUN4SOL2 / SUNMP (mixture of SPARC 2,10,20's)

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

Any sign of the SOLARIS addhosts bug getting fixed?

Jon Woodcock Astronomy Unit, QMW, University of London, UK

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Christian Trefftz Gomez - Informatica y Sistemas <ctrefftz@sigma.eafit.edu.co>
>
> Are you using PVM today?
Yes.
>
> What are your application(s)?
I'm working on:
- Parallelizing an application for evaluating sismical risk
- Parallelizing a ray-tracing application
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
I have used it on:
- SUN SPARCs
- DEC Alphas
- PCs with Linux
>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
I'm confused about the future of PVM. Are you intending to
conform to MPI? Or is PVM going to keep its present interface?
Plese illuminate the user community!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "F. Spengemann" <fs@d-06.statik.uni-essen.de>

Are you using PVM today?

	Yes

What are your application(s)?

	Parallelization of structural optimization problems and finite
	element analysis by using evolution strategies and decomposition
	methods.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

	 3 x HP 814
	 9 x HP 325
	10 x HP 715
	 3 x IBM RS6000

Best regards

Jianbo Cai jc@bauwesen.uni-essen.de
Frank Spengemann fs@bauwesen.uni-essen.de

Department of Civil Engineering
University of Essen
D 45117 Essen
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: stefan.nonneman@jrc.it (Stefan Nonneman)

Dear Colleague,

As You asked in Your e-mail of 6-1-1995, I send You the answers on the
questions related to what we are
doing with PVM.

1. We intend to use PVM this days. It is not Yet installed. I started
studying the reference guide, in order to make me familiar with the
concept.

2. I'm working in the nuclear world, doing Monte-Carlo simulations with the
code MCNP developed by
ORNL and LANL. An option of this code is that it is modified in a way
permitting to run the code under PVM. In my present day work I need to
tackle two types of problems. In order to perform optimisation studies, I
need calculation power of the scale of huge main frame in order to perform
the runs in a suitable period of time. The solution is a large number of
machines in a distributed systems management system ( with AMD tech for
distribution of file systems ) and a script starting the code once a
previous run is finished. A second type of problems is the one where I need
to run once the code but with an enormous number of particles. Here PVM is
very helpful.

3. For the moment I have only 13 Sparc 10 and 20 machines available under
Solaris 1.1.1. In our institute I have access to a Dec - Alfa and probably
also to a HP 9000/735. As a first test I want to use only the Sun stations.

If You need more information please ask me.

My co-ordinates :

Stefan Nonneman
Joint-Research-Center
Institute for Safety Technology.
Nuclear Fuel Cycle Unit
Integrated Safeguards sector.

Via E. Fermi
21020 ISPRA (VA)
Italy

Tel : 00.39.332.78.52.70
Fax : 00.39.332.78.91.08
E-mail : stefan.nonneman@jrc.it

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Laurentios Servissoglou <zrasl01@zdv.uni-tuebingen.de>

> Are you using PVM today?
Yes.

> What are your application(s)?
1) I hold a course in PVM at the university of Tuebingen.
2) I try to make PVM fail-safe with the help checkpointing and message-logging.
 The last point will be my thesis at the university of Tuebingen.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
We use it with 18 HP-workstations (715), DEC-Alpha 3300 (OSF/1 Ver. 3.0), with
two CRAY-EL 94 (Unicos 8.0x), CONVEX C3680 and different other workstations.

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
Documentation about the source code in book form.

Bye,

Laurentios S.

===============================================================================
Laurentios Servissoglou (Tools for parallel programming, computational physics)

Zentrum fuer Datenverarbeitung
Universitaet Tuebingen
Brunnenstr. 27 E-Mail:
D-72074 Tuebingen servissoglou@zdv.uni-tuebingen.de
Fed. Rep. of Germany Tel.: (49) 7071 / 29-5915
===============================================================================

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: vesseur@fwi.uva.nl (Joep Vesseur)

 > Are you using PVM today?
no.

 > What are your application(s)?
applications used/developed here concentrate on simulation of natural
processes (car-crash simulation, light scattering etc.)

 > How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
Workstations: SunOS, Solaris,
Parallel Platforms: 512 node Parsytec GCel (t800),
 32 node Parsytec PowerXplorer (PowerPC 601).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: jeff@bartok.physics.ncsu.edu (Jeff Knerr)

>> Are you using PVM today?
yes.

>> What are your application(s)?
plasma particle codes. simulation of astrophysical shocks.

>> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
we are currently trying to use it on a 32 node Cray T3D.
we also have it on a few of our local workstations, and
have used it previously on a DEC cluster.

* Jeffrey M. Knerr North Carolina State University
* Postdoc Dept. of Physics, Box 8202
* jeff_knerr@ncsu.edu Raleigh, NC 27695-8202
* (919) 515-7287 FAX: (919) 515-6538

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: t81174@sulu.dehavilland.ca (David Jones)

Hi

I received your survey e-mail concerning usage of PVM at our site.
Sorry it's taken me so long to respond to your e-mail, but I was
actually attending a conference (the 33rd AIAA meeeting in Reno NV)
presenting a paper on our work using PVM at deHavilland Inc. in
Toronto.

Anyway here are my answers to your questions:

1: Are you using PVM today?

 Yes

2: What are your application(s)?

 I've used PVM with the 3D multi-block structured grid generation
 code GRIDGEN3D. I'll shortly be using PVM to parallalize a flow
 solver (initially Euler, then Navier Stokes). In addition, there
 are at least two more guys at deHavilland who are investigating
 the use of PVM with their codes. I don't know too much about their
 work, so I can't give you any more details about their work.

3: How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

 I've used the PVM version of GRIDGEN3D on various sized Virtual
 Machines. The largest was 86 machines and comprised of about 70
 IBM RS6000 workstations (both 41T and 355 models) and about 16
 SGI machines (R4000, 4D/35 and Indigo machines).

Hope that answers your questions. If you need more info, don't
hesitate to contact me again.

Best Wishes

David Jones
===========

Phone (416) 375 3492
Fax (416) 375 4537

e-mail djones@dehavilland.ca

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Rafael Mayo Gual <mayo@vents.uji.es>

 Are you using PVM today?
 YES

 What are your application(s)?

 I AM DEVELOPING APPLICATIONS RELATED TO MATRIX PROBLEMS IN CONTROL,
 AND CHEMISTRY.

 How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

 I AM USING IT WITH A CLUSTER OF HP 9000/730 WITH HP-UX 9.05

--
 ___________________
 | \\\ \\\ | Rafael Mayo Gual
 | \\\ \\\ | Detp. INFORMATICA
 | @@@ \\\ \\\| UNIVERSITAT JAUME I
 | ||| ===== | 12071-CASTELLO DE LA PLANA
 | ||| :.:.: | SPAIN
 | ||| \===/ | ---------------------------------------------
 |\\ /// ||| | email: mayo@inf.uji.es
 | -- ||| | tel: (+37)-64-345769
 |_____________|||___| fax: (+37)-64-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <mehaut@lifl.fr>

-->Are you using PVM today?

Yes, every day we use PVM! My team is one of the Computer Science Lab of Lille
(LIFL).

-->What are your application(s)?

PVM is a good support for:

	for Parallel and Irregular Applications
 (Branch&Bound, Parallel Genetic Alg., Quadratic Affectation...)

	for the design of cooperating applications.
	(PVM is used for the Communication Library)

	for Students in the "Parallel Programming" module.
	(100 students learn and use PVM)

We use a Multithreaded approach for the parallel and distributed
programming. (like TPVM, Athapascan (IMAG)...).

Several others teams use PVM for

	Data Parallel Programming (Data Parallel Language MPL [Maspar] is ported on PVM)

	Graphical team (Parallel Ray Casting program with PVM)

-->How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Research Lab.
------------

16 DEC_ALPHA (FARM)
10 SUN4
4 SUN4SOL2 (Sparc Classic)
4 SUN4SOL2 (Sparc 5)
1 SUNMP (Sparc 10, biprocessor)
10 PCLINUX (486 DX-2 66)

We also use the IBM SP1 of Grenoble (IMAG, apache team) (32 processors)

Students classroom.
------------------

1 SUNMP (Sparc 10, biprocessor)
1 SUN4 (Sparc 2)
16 SUN4 (Sparc IPC)
8 SUN4 (Sparc ELC)
24 SUN4SOL2 (Sparc Classic)
24 PCLINUX (486 DX-2 66)

-->Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

We had some difficulties to use the Multithreaded library on PVM.
Because we wanted a Preemptive execution with priorities, we had some
difficulties because the PVM kernel is not MT-SAFE (Multithreading safe).
We modified the PVM library and protected the critical, global and
shared data (for example the message buffers...).

The students appreciated PVM, because the model is very simple to understand
and they "easily" build real parallel program. But student often make mistakes
and the debugging is difficult.

Best regards and happy new year to the PVM team!

JF Mehaut

=================================================================

 Universite des Sciences et Technologies de Lille
 Laboratoire d'Informatique Fondamentale de Lille
		 URA 369 du CNRS
 Cite scientifique Batiment M3
 59655 Villeneuve d'Ascq CEDEX

 phone: (33) 20-43-47-27 fax: (33) 20-43-65-66
 E-mail: mehaut@lifl.fr

=================================================================
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Stefan Rottegger <rottegge@informatik.tu-muenchen.de>
>
> Are you using PVM today?
yes
>
> What are your application(s)?
Nothing speciell.
I'm working on a visualistion tool for pvm and I need only
trace data for tests. So my applications do nothing beside
using every avaiable pvm function.
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
SUN4, LINUX
>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
The order of receiving data is not correct.
In the case one task is direct linked with for example taskA
and another task isn't, I detected the following problem:
If the direct linked task sends first
and taskA receives (with wildcards) after the send of the two tasks,
taskA gets the message of the direct linked task second.
(the sending tasks must be on different machines than the receiving
 task).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <samadanm@cs.rpi.edu>

I am not using PVM today.
I used PVM for LU decomposition.
I used four SUN SPARC stations for this work.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: rbross@krang.parl.eng.clemson.edu (Robert Ross)
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Yes, I am, and quite a few other students here will be soon as well.

>
> What are your application(s)?

I have used PVM for image processing applications in the past. I will be using it in a parallel processing class (along with other students) for numerous applications.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

I most often use PVM on 4 DEC Alphas on a FDDI switch. I have also used it on a network of Suns.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: John Avila <avila@jupiter.SJSU.EDU>

>
> Are you using PVM today?
>
Yes.

> What are your application(s)?
>
(1) Teaching parallel processing in an undergraduate course
here at San Jose State University.
(2) Trying to port a large physics code from a vector processor
to a distributed processor.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
(1) I've used a small network of Sun workstations (six machines).
(2) A Meiko CS/2 using tens of processors (still in the test
stages for the application but the number may ultimately be
about 100 processors).

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

I was not able to use two different Sun workstation networks
here on campus. Each network had its own file structure with
PVM installed in a different named directory. I was never
able to attach processors from the other network to a job
running on one of the networks. I tried using the directory
information according to the suggestion of someone who responded
to my e-mail message but this never worked. I finally gave up.
This was about a year ago. I would really like to be able to
utilize this feature.

---John Avila
 Math/Computer Science Department
 San Jose State University
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Rob Caljouw <rob@gsx-next.cadvision.com>

PVM is not currently in use but has been in the past and will be
again in the near future. Thank you for the excellent software. I
am hoping to modify a large Natural Gas Pipeline simulator to
incorporate PVM and take better advantage of our computing
resources.

It was used not so much for an application but rather a teaching
aid for instruction in the capabilities of a network of computers
and the potential of the network in our organization.

PVM has been run on a small network of six Sun SPARCstations and
two Intel machines running SCO UNIX.

Again, thank you for the terrific software and keep up the great work!

Regards,

Rob Caljouw

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: monteil@laas.fr (Thierry Monteil)

>Are you using PVM today?

yes, i am using PVM.

>What are your application(s)?

I test PVM and compare to others Message Passing Software.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

I used a network of SUN workstation (1 to 20 hosts).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Bernard.Tourancheau@lip.ens-lyon.fr (Bernard Tourancheau)

Are you using PVM today?
Yes

What are your application(s)?
Redistribution of data
Eigenvalue solvers (Jacobi, Sub-space methods)
Monitoring of parallel applications

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
Mostly SUNs, a few DEC alpha

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Richard.Baron@lip.ens-lyon.fr (Richard Baron)

Are you using PVM today?
	Yes, and I'm planning to use it on several platforms (Parallel machines, ATM network)

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
	I used up to 24 machines, all SUN Workstations, including Sun4 and Sun SPARC 5.

Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
	Do you plan to include specific way to spawn processes on distant hosts,
	in a "nice" mode, i.e. something that would allow the main user of the host
	to work normally (without being bored by intensive computation) ?
	I am also interested in the development of PVM on ATM networks.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Ronan Reilly <rreilly@nova.ucd.ie>

> Are you using PVM today? Yes

Yes

> What are your application(s)?

Neural net simulation.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

HP (1), Vax (1), Convex(1), and Sparcs (4)

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

I haven't been using it heavily enough yet to be able to make any useful
observations.

Ronan

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ronan Reilly e-mail: rreilly@nova.ucd.ie
Dept. of Computer Science Tel.: +353-1-706 2475
University College Dublin Fax: +353-1-269 7262
Belfield, Dublin 4
IRELAND
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <haimes@orville.mit.edu>

Are you using PVM today? YES

What are your application(s)? Distributed visualization & CFD

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
SUN4, PMAX, CNVX, ALPHA, SGI5, SGI64, RS6K, HPPA, KSR1

					Bob Haimes
					MIT Areo & Astro
					(617) 253-7518
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <alliot@eis.enac.dgac.fr>

 > Are you using PVM today?
Yes

 > What are your application(s)?
When are using PVM to run a parallel genetic algorithm on a network of
workstations.

 > How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
We are using HP-7xx and PC running Linux. We have 30 HP, and around 10 PC.

JM Alliot
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: breiting@Mathematik.UNi-Marburg.DE (Silvia Breitinger)

> Are you using PVM today?
Yes, we do - see below.
>
> What are your application(s)?
We run a parallel programming project (students compare different
algorithms).
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
Locally, a handful of sun workstations. Greater projects are intended
to follow.

Problems: on the sun network, we use an installation of PVM 3.3.5
and it works fine locally, but we didn't manage to establish a
connection to the pvm on the AP1000 at imperial college, London.
This is probably due to version incompatibilities (version 3.2.?
being installed there).
Other comments: nice system !!

Best regards,
 Silvia

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: bcarlson@sbee.eng.sunysb.edu (Prof. Brad Carlson)

We have only had PVM for a short time, and our project is off to a relatively
slow start. Between now and May we should spend considerable time on it. I
am excited about using PVM in our project, and my feeling is that PVM is a
great resource.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <schu@rucs.faculty.cs.runet.edu>

%
% Are you using PVM today?

Yes.
%
% What are your application(s)?

Instructional
Implementation of Parallel algorithms

%
% How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

About 45 SUN's (Sparc1, Sparc5, Sparc10, Servers) in 4 separate subnets.

%
% Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
% Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
%

Given what we are doing now, it is sufficient.
Many thanks to the development team and those people that make pvm
available for public retrieval.

%
S.C. Chu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: tmadden@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu (Timothy J. Madden)

>Are you using PVM today?
 Yes.

>What are your application(s)?
 Test codes. They are subroutines of a larger code GASP which may
eventually incorporate PVM.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 I am using PVM on the 400 node IBM SP2 in Maui, Hawaii.

>Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
 Expanding the documentation for your www service. A version of the
documentation for www viewing would be nice.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Stefan Muench -4261 <smuench@ira.uka.de>

We are using PVM 3.3

> Are you using PVM today?
Yes.

> What are your application(s)?
Experiments with different kinds of tasks, input, and output devices.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
1 SGI indigo
1 SGI indy

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
The function pvm_catchout() should be implemented as described in the
manual.

Theses answers only hold true for me/my project. In other projects at our
institute, they are using pvm on several SUN Sparcstations. The application
area of this project is image processing and control of a mobile robot.

Stefan Muench

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: keith@supr.scm.liv.ac.uk (Keith Taylor)

Dear PVM Project Team,

 Although aware of PVM's existence for some time, I had not used it in
anger until last November, when I employed it as the basis for a short course
on parallel programming. I was most impressed! Its major strengths, as I see
it are:

1. it is available on a great variety of machines and architectures, making
 it the most portable message passing system that I know;

2. it is easy to set up; I obtained it by email and installed it on a network
 of Silicon Graphics workstations from scratch, with the minimum of fuss; a
 PC running LINUX was later added with no problems;

3. PVM is extremely well documented; I borrowed freely from the user's guide
 for the course;

4. the examples provided are a good basis for practical workshops, but could
 have to be tidied a little.

 I have one major criticism. The mechanism for sending and receiving seems
at first, at least, extremely clumsy. Is there a good reason that send and
receive procedures cannot be pointed at user created buffers rather than the
implicit current send and receive buffers?

 I hope my comments have been of some assistance.

Yours sincerely,

Keith Taylor
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Olivier Coulaud <Olivier.Coulaud@loria.fr>

> Are you using PVM today?
 Yes
> What are your application(s)?
Domaine Decomposition,
A C++ interface for PVM
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
4 ; HPPA SGI64 and SGI64MP
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Cord Steinbeck <steinb@ifm.uni-hannover.de>

Dear PVM Project Team,

I use pvm in release 3.3 on a hp cluster of 6 machines and a linux pc.

It is used to run parts of a Finite Element programm parallel.

It tok a long time (half a year) to make this programm running parallel. But
reason is not given by pvm.

In future I will try to use also the CRAY T3D SC 192 in Berlin. Internet name
cray@zib-berlin.de . There is Cray MPP PVM-3 availiable.

Best wishes,
Cord Steinbeck-Behrens

===========================================================
*** Cord Steinbeck-Behrens ***
*** Institut fuer Mechanik ***
*** Appelstrasse 11 ***
*** 30167 Hannover ***
*** Tel: +(511) 762-4120 ***
*** ***
*** E-Mail: steinb@ifm.uni-hannover.de ***
===========================================================

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <adouobo@hepatite.cher.univ-lehavre.fr>

 Dear colleague ,
 this are the answers of your
 questions:

 1) Are you using PVM today ?
 -------------------------

 I used pvm since october 1994 .

 2) what are your application(s) ?
 ------------------------------

 I use pvm in fluid mechanics
 I have to parallelize one calculations
 code .

 3) how many and what kind of machines have you used
 with PVM?

 For instance i use the machines SUN4(sparc10),
 HPPA ( hp9000s700).

 I would have some informations on the parallelisation
 Master/slave.
 Thank you.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: kris@whipple.space.swri.edu (Kris Murawski)

Are you using PVM today? I plan to use soon.

What are your application(s)? Numerical simulations of
the interaction of the solar wind with Venus

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM? I would like to
use as many as possible as the code is 3D MHD. The code requires a lot CPU
time.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Paul Adams" <paul@laplace.csb.yale.edu>

1) We are still using pvm today (the latest version available).

2) Our application is a molecular dynamics code for macromolecules (X-PLOR).

3) We have tried to impliment our pvm based code on 8 different
 platforms, mainly workstations (next, hp-735, dec-alpha, sgi-r4000,
 ibm-rs6000, and sgi-onyx), and custom mpp hardware (cray-t3d and
 intel-paragon). We hope to extend tests to other shared memory
 machines (multiprocessor dec-alpha, convex-examplar).

 Cheers,
	Paul Adams

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: delaitt@cpc.westminster.ac.uk (Thierry Delaitre)

> Are you using PVM today?
 I am using PVM since 18 months (from PVM 3.2.6).

> What are your application(s)?
 I develop a performance model of PVM using computer simulation
 (SES/Workbench).

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 I currently use 1 machine up to 30 machines.
 - DX2, DX4 (Linux)
 - Sparc IPC, Sparc 10, Sparc 20 (SUN-OS 4.1.3)
 - Sparc 5 (Solaris 2.3).

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
 I have the following problem: sometimes I cannot add a new host into
 the virtual machine from a solaris 2 machine.

________________________________________________________________________
Thierry Delaitre		| Tel: +44/071-911-5000 ext. 3659
Centre for Parallel Computing	|
University of Westminster	| E-mail: delaitt@wmin.ac.uk
115 New Cavendish Street	|
LONDON W1M 8JS, UK		| http://www.wmin.ac.uk/~delaitt
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: depretto@cers.essi.fr (Depretto Thierry)
	Dear Sir,

	I apology to have replied so late.

 > Are you using PVM today?

I will use it during a training period performed in the french national
computer science research institute (INRIA).

 > What are your application(s)?

I am student in the last ingeneer school year. We learn about networks,
concurrent programing, real time systems.

 > How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

I use PVM on an ethernet Sparc SUN network.

	Sincerely yours.

--
 de Pretto Thierry
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <gabuaa@bepc2.ihep.ac.cn>

Dear Colleague:
	I have received your email about pvm survey.Thank for your email.I have a
pleasure to answer your three questions , and I want to send an improved aimk
file to you.I hope that you will send me some new information about PVM in the
future.

First, I answer your questions:
1) Are you using PVM today?
 Yes,I am using PVM3.3.5.

2) What are your application(s)?
 Our applications are scientifical computing and its visualization.

3) How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 Our project is called "Scalable Parallel Clusters System".We have used six
SPARCstion 2 and 10 with PVM. We will use eight heterogeneous machines which
consists of SPARCstation2 ,SPARCstation 10,SGI and Intel Pentium PC with PVM.

Second,I used aimk to compile PVM programs,when I gave make file a name
"makefile.aimk",the compiling fails.It would pass only if the make file was
named "Makefile.aimk". So I modified the aimk file in order to succeed in
compiling PVM programs by name "Makefile.aimk" or "makefile.aimk" on Nov.4 ,
1994.I send the fellowing improved aimk file to you .

 Best wishes for the PVM Project Team!

 Wu Xingfu

 1/18/95

Note:I added B shell sentences between "****" and "****" in aimk file. I am a
PH.D student in department of computer science and engneering ,Beijing
University of Aeronautics and Astronautics ,Beijing 100083, P.R.China.

The fellowing is the improved aimk file:

makeincwd=0
found=1
while [ $# -ge 1 -a $found = 1 ]; do
	found=0
	case "$1" in
	-here ) makeincwd=1; shift; found=1 ;;
	esac
done

case "x$PVM_ROOT" in x )
		echo aimk: PVM_ROOT not defined >&2
		exit 1
;; esac

case "x$PVM_ARCH" in x | xUNKNOWN )
	PVM_ARCH="`$PVM_ROOT/lib/pvmgetarch`"
	case "x$PVM_ARCH" in x )
		echo 'aimk: no pvmgetarch - is $PVM_ROOT set correctly?' >&2
		exit 1
	;; esac
;; esac

export PVM_ARCH
export PVM_ROOT

#
# run make in cwd or subdir if exists.
#

if [ $makeincwd = 0 -a \( -f $PVM_ARCH/Makefile -o -f $PVM_ARCH/makefile \) ]; then
	echo making in $PVM_ARCH/ for $PVM_ARCH
	cd $PVM_ARCH
	exec make PVM_ARCH=$PVM_ARCH $@

else

# Add the fellowing two lines
#****************************************************
	while [ -f Makefile.aimk -o -f makefile.aimk ]
	do
#****************************************************
	if [ -f Makefile.aimk ]; then
		if [ ! -d $PVM_ARCH ]; then
			mkdir $PVM_ARCH
		fi
		echo making in $PVM_ARCH/ for $PVM_ARCH
		cd $PVM_ARCH
		exec make -f $PVM_ROOT/conf/$PVM_ARCH.def -f ../Makefile.aimk PVM_ARCH=$PVM_ARCH $@
	else

#Add the fellowing eight lines
#****************************************************
		if [ ! -d $PVM_ARCH ]; then
			mkdir $PVM_ARCH
		fi
		echo making in $PVM_ARCH/ for $PVM_ARCH
		cd $PVM_ARCH
		exec make -f $PVM_ROOT/conf/$PVM_ARCH.def -f ../makefile.aimk PVM_ARCH=$PVM_ARCH $@
	fi
	done
#****************************************************
fi

exit 1

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <mehmet@cs.UMD.EDU>

My applications on PVM mostly related on how to decluster spatial data
on network of workstations.

I used from 2 to 10 Sun Sparc and DEC workstations.

-Mehmet Bayraktar
 Graduate student
 University of Maryland
 College Park, MD 20742
 mehmet@cs.umd.edu

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Christopher Giertsen <chrisgie@cmr.no>
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Not exactly at this moment, but I have recently used PVM
and I was very happy with PVM functionality, stability, and
performance.

> What are your application(s)?

See the article: "Parallel Volume Rendering on a Network of
Workstations" by C. Giertsen and J. Petersen, published in
IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, vol.13, no.6,
pp.15-23, 1993

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Up to 10-15 unix workstations.

Best regards,

----------------------------------------------------------------
Christopher Giertsen, Ph.D. Christian Michelsen Research A/S
Senior Scientist Fantoftvegen 38
Dept. of Advanced Computing 5036 Bergen-Fantoft
 NORWAY

Dial direct: +47 55 574350 Phone: +47 55 574040
E-mail: chrisgie@cmr.no Fax : +47 55 574041
----------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Rick Lind" <rick@aem.umn.edu>

I am currently using pvm.

I am doing research in robust control. I use pvm for implementing parallel
algorithms used in robust control problems. These types of algorithms
include optimization, controller formulation, and analysis problems.
Research utilizing large flexible space structures leads to robust control
problems of extremely high order that prohibit their being solved on a
standard workstation with a sequential algorithm. I am investigating parallel
versions of some of these algorithms for a practical engineering environment
that consists of several workstations without access to a dedicated parallel
supercomputer. Pvm is the communication software for this research.

The machines in use are 8 Sun and 4 SGI workstations.

rick@aem.umn.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Dave Zareski <zareski@graphics.cornell.edu>
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Yes

>
> What are your application(s)?

Graphics applications, including radiosity algorithms, fractals, and Karl
Sims' genomes.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>

We have many HP workstations, and 4 IBM RS/6000s. I also plan to try
using our 3 SGI Indigo Extreme 2s.

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

One quick suggestion. It would be nice if PVM could make a reasonable guess
at the relative speed term based on the architecture and machine model type.
That would mean the user wouldn't have to figure out those numbers
themselves.

If I think of further comments I'll send them along later. Meanwhile keep
up the good work.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Ludek Matyska <ludek@ics.muni.cz>

Dear PVM team,

my appologies for the delay, but here is our survey answer:

> Are you using PVM today?
Yes.
>
> What are your application(s)?
In house developed D-CICADA program (published in J. Comp. Chem., Vol 7, 1994,
presented at the 1st European Conference on Computational Chemistry
at Nantes, France, June 1994).
D-CICADA(FT) -- robust implementation of D-CICADA (presented at 1st
European PVM Users Group Meeting, Roma, Italy, October 1994).
PVM is also used as a basis implementation environment in the research
project involving paralelization of sequential algorithms in
computational chemistry (with the cooperation of some Masters and PhD
degree students).
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
Twenty (?). SUN's, (old) DEC (running Ultrix), PC with Linux or BSD/386,
recently Indy from SGI (POWER Challenge from SGI will be our next step).
>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
We will enjoy any development in the area of the debugging support. The
debugging becomes the most difficult part of the whole development cycle
(and it is a heavy burden in our environment, where PVM is mostly used as
a tools for experimental computational chemistry). We would like to have
some possibilities to inspect the actual state of the PVM (messages,
buffers, ...), to log the transactions (to be inspected later) and so on.

On the other hand we are very gratefull for having the PVM -- it is
really very good pice of code and even as it is under continuous
development, it is very stable and usefull even when used for large and
long computations. Thank you.

					Ludek Matyska

Department of Information Technology
Faculty of Informatics
and
Institute of Computer Science
Masaryk University
Buresova 20
602 00 Brno				Fax: ++42-5-41212747
Czech Republic				Phone: ++42-5-41321237 ext. 384
e-mail: ludek@ics.muni.cz		 ++42-5-740267
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Kurt Oppitz <kop@potsdam.ifag.de>
>
> Are you using PVM today?
 not on a large scale and in its entirety
 only first tests of some simple parallel algorithms
>
> What are your application(s)?
 extensive numerical computations of gravity field models of the Earth
 (analysis and synthesis problems)
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 2x HP 9000/735 48MB RAM
 1x HP 9000/750 128MB RAM
 2x HP 9000/710 48MB RAM
>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
 we found no simple way of (i) debugging slave tasks and
 (ii) of debugging the dynamical behaviour
 (e.g. by means of some graphic tools under X-windows)
>
--
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
 Dr. Kurt Oppitz
 Institut fuer Angewandte Geodaesie
 Aussenstelle Potsdam	 Tel. : +49 (0331) 316614
 Michendorfer Chaussee 23 Fax : +49 (0331) 316602
 D-14473 Potsdam, Germany Email: kop@potsdam.ifag.de
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: ranba@vm.cnuce.cnr.it (Ranieri Baraglia)
Subject: pvm-survey

Answers

Are you using PVM today? yes

What are your application(s)? molecolar dynamic and astrophysics

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM? cluster of
workstations and SP1

best wishes,
Ranieri Baraglia

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: roch@gag.observ-gr.fr (Francoise Roch)

>are you using PVM today?
yes

>what are your application(s)?
- star modeling (parallelization of a Monte Carlo code)
- stellar evolution
- physico chemistry of the interstellar medium
- ionosphere modeling

>how many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
- network of IBM RS6000 (up to 23 stations) with Ethernet
or FDDI interface
- IBM SP1 (32 processors)

*--------------------------------------------------------------*
* Francoise Roch 	| Tel: (33) 76-51-42-16a *
* Observatoire de Grenoble	| Fax: (33) 76-44-88-21 *
* 414 rue de la piscine, BP53X	|			 *
* 38041 Grenoble cedex		| email: roch@gag.observ-gr.fr *
*--------------------------------------------------------------*
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: je@ziam.rmi.de (Joerg Eisenreich)

Dear Project Team members,

actually, I still not use PVM, but I plan to implement the programs
for my master thesis in PVM.

My application will be the simulation of electromagnetic waves using
the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method.

The target hardware is currently a small cluster of 3 SUNs and a grid
of 8 Parsytec PowerXplorers running Parix 1.3 and PowerPVM (8 by 4 PPC
601 nodes). Cf. http://www.parsytec.de (IP-Addr. 192.166.39.34 since
the name may still not been propagated all over the world).

Best regards,

Joerg Eisenreich
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Paulo Vasconcelos <pjv@garfield.fe.up.pt>

Hi

Yes, I'm using PVM on Domain Decomposition techniques applied to CFD
simulations. I'm also using BLACS and some ScaLAPACK routines. My work is
running on a farm of 4 DEC (3000) Alpha's AXP interconnect by a FDDI-based
GIGAswitch.

With my best regards

Paulo.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <baardk@mack.uit.no>

Dear Sir

I am sorry for my late response to your survey, but I suppose
you still appreciate an answer.

Currently I am using PVM in direct numerical simulations of
partial differential equations describing two-dimensional
random flow in a plasma. It is a multi-fluid simulation and
I therefore use a master/slave concept on a cluster of IBM
workstations, which works excellent. I am not able to compare
PVM with other message passing libraries since it is the only
system I have tried.

In the testing/developing period I used a heterogenous cluster
of one HP and two DEC workstations connected with internet.

I then moved the program to a national HPC resource consisting
of 16 IBM-workstations connected with a FDDI net, without any
porting problems.

I hope this is the information you are asking for. Feel free
to ask further questions if necessary.

Your Sincerely,
Baard Krane
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Laurent.Lefevre@lip.ens-lyon.fr (Laurent Lefevre)

 > Are you using PVM today?
> Yes

> What are your application(s)?
> Distributed Shared memory systems

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
> sun sparc workstations

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: sam@csi.jpl.nasa.gov (Sam Sirlin)

 Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

 What are your application(s)?

Optical prescription retrieval.

 How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Only a few sun sparcs so far.

 Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
 Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

Debugging is tough. The debugger seems to have trouble sometimes with
multiple copies or something, xdbx had trouble... It wasn't clear to
me how to get stderr to go somewhere I could see (from a fortran
child) - I ended up just opening unit childid for printout.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: zempo@tuc.sumitomo-chem.co.jp (Yasunari Zempo)

>
> Are you using PVM today?
not yet

> What are your application(s)?
I am planning to change my electronic structure calculation
program to run parallelly on PVM

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
As I mentioned before, not introduced yet. But 7 EWS's will be
planned to introduce.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Manolis Vavalis <mav@n208hp.cc.uch.gr>

Subject: PVM survey

Are you using PVM today?
Yes I am using PVM.

What are your application(s)?
Underwater acoustics.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
I have used up to 10 workstations (Suns, HPs, IBM RS6000).

Regards

E. Vavalis

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: bu@power.szfki.kfki.hu (Ujfalussy Balazs)

Sorry to answer so late, i was away.

Here are my answers to the PVM survey questions:

Are you using PVM today? YES
How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 1. 9 IBM RS/6000 model 320h connected by ethernet.
 2. IBM SP1. (does not work)
What are your application(s)?
 Scientific research code written by me to study surface
 electronic structure in Solid State Physics.

 I would like to see some routines or sample algorithms to ease the
implementati
on of load balancing or, if such exists pointees where it can be found.

Regards,

 Balazs Ujfalussy

--

 Balazs Ujfalussy
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Research Institute for Solid-State Physics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences
 Net: bu@power.szfki.kfki.hu
 Tel: [36-1]169-9499/11-71 Fax: [36-1]155-1193
 **** This post made from 100% recycled electrons ****
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: ynotay@ulb.ac.be (Notay Y.)
>
> Are you using PVM today?
>
 YES

> What are your application(s)?
>
 We develop "model" programs to test parallel solution algorithms for
 discrete second order elliptic PDEs.
 By model, I mean that we just do basic research on
 linear solvers, and are not involved with special purpose application codes.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
 Cluster of 8 IBM RS600

 <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>
 < >
 < Yvan NOTAY >
 < >
 < Service de Metrologie >
 < Nucleaire >
 < ULB (CP 165) >
 < 50 av. F.D.Roosevelt >
 < B-1050 Bruxelles >
 < Belgium >
 < >
 < tel : (32) 2 650 36 70 >
 < fax : (32) 2 650 35 64 >
 < >
 < email : ynotay@ulb.ac.be >
 < >
 <vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: bpfeusto@crl.mobil.com (Brad Feuston)

(1) yes, we are using PVM today
(2) Applications: Lattice Boltzmann simulations, GAMESS
(3) 8 Dec/ALPHA 3000

Regards,
Brad
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: lucia@matna2.dma.unina.it (lucia maddalena)

I am using PVM (3.1 and 3.3 versions) for the development of
basic parallel algorithms for Computer Graphics.
We have PVM installed on the following machines:
- 12 IBM RISC/6000 workstations Ethernet-connected
- 3 IBM RISC/6000 workstations FDDI-connected
- 4 HP/6000 workstations Ethernet-connected
- 1 Intel iPSC/860 (16 nodes hypercube)
I found PVM very easy to use, exspecially for beginning with
parallel computing. However its implementation on the Intel
iPSC/860 gives few problems (related to the size of the message
buffer among nodes and between ``host'' - SRM - and nodes).
Lucia Maddalena

Dipartimento di Matematica ed Applicazioni
Universita' degli Studi di Napoli
Via Cintia - Complesso Monte S. Angelo - Edificio T
80126 Napoli, Italy

tel. +39-81-675624
fax +39-81-7662106
e-mail lucia@matna2.dma.unina.it

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Gill, James" <JGill@engineer.ClemsonSC.ATTGIS.COM>

No, I'm not presently using PVM. I was using it previously for a class
through Clemson University. We were doing a distributed sort of an array of
integers across multiple machines.
 ----------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: martin@ZIB-Berlin.DE (Alexander Martin)

Are you using PVM today?

I am still using PVM from time to time.

What are your application(s)?

linear programming

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Sun workstations, between 2 and 4

Any comments:
It would be nice to have information about how time-consuming
the different subroutines are. It took me quite a while to
figure out where most of the time is spent.

Best whishes,

Alexander Martin

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Steven Gibson <gibson@madraf.astro.wisc.edu>

Are you using PVM today?

 I am just learning how to implement PVM.

What are your application(s)?

 The application is coarse-grained parallelization of the DDSCAT code
 by Draine & Flatau. This code uses finite element techniques to model
 electromagnetic scattering properties of arbitrarily-shaped interstellar
 dust grains. At some stage we may also attempt parallelization of the
 FFT part of the code.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

 Mike Wolff (U. Colorado) has been working on this for a while, running the
 PVM DDSCAT code on workstation clusters. I am joining him on the project
 to try implementation on the Cray T3D at Pittsburgh; this parallel machine
 consists of 256 DEC-Alpha nodes connected in a 3-D torus geometry.

Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

 At this time I'm afraid I lack the experience to make any comments.

---
I hope this was of some help.

Steven Gibson
UW-Madison
gibson@madraf.astro.wisc.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Michael Bobak <bobak@athens.dis.anl.gov>

Just getting in from vacation now, so this will be brief for now.

> Are you using PVM today? Yes

> What are your application(s)?

Have what will be several environmental simulations interoperate.
This is coordinated by the use of CLIPS (C Language Integrated Production System).
PVM calls are made from programs written in C, Fortran and
Smalltalk & CLIPS w/ C bindings.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 ~a doz. sparc 10 or 20s and a SGI Crimson
 and someday an IBM SP1

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

I still ocasionaly have problems connecting up some machines.
I usually don't persue it, because I can find enough other machines to run on.
I've gone through some of the trouble shooting on this, but sometimes it just isn't
obvious why it doesn't work.

I like PVM, but one thing that could make use switch someday is finding something that
much more reliably (with ease) starts up on several machines.

There are probably a few things that would be nice someday, but I am less
worried about them right now.

Thank you for the nice package, and I'd also like to say that I have appreciated
the friendly support.

Sincerely,
Mike B.
________________________________________________________________________
Michael bobak@athens.dis.anl.gov Argonne Nat. Lab Bld.900 room Q02
 Argonne, IL 60439 708-252-9559
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Dirk Evers <dirk@TechFak.Uni-Bielefeld.DE>

Hello!

We are evaluating PVM for use as a sublayer to a
high-level communication interface in a Multi Agent System Environment.
Special interest is in the group server facilities.
Questions concern realtime constraints like max. time limits for
messagepassing under heavy cpu load, different communicationmodes,
changes in net-topography at runtime and use of heterogenous architectures.

The Project is called MAKS "Multiagenten-Kommunikations-Subsystem"
and will have to provide flexible message formats and group-communication
while choosing and instanciating agents best suited to solve given tasks.
I will start coding for this project in about 2 months time.
Thanks for a really nice system.

Dirk Evers

Knowledge Based Systems Group
Technical Fakulty
University of Bielefeld
33615 Bielefeld
Germany
dirk@techfak.uni-bielefeld.de

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <Pascale.Noyret@cerfacs.fr>

Hello

First sorry for my bad english.

I use pvm for a cooperative projet which
goal is to couple an atmospheric and an Oceanic
General Circulation Models on two distant Cray.

The two Cray are ip-connected through Renater
which is the french network for research and education
(34 Mb/s). One of the Cray was connected to Renater
through an fddi ring and then an ethernet network
and the other through an hippi switch and then ethernet
network.

While sending messages over than 200 reals a time, pvm
expired apparently due to time-out. It was not
so obvious to know it was due to a too big fragmentation
of frames send and that we had to adjust UPDMAXLENGTH
and to recompile pvm.
It is a pity that pvm is not able to know which networks are
used and to have UDPMAXLENGTH correctly set but I guess
it is not easy to program. You should perhaps explain
better how to set UDPMAXLENGTH in documentation.

Best Regards

Pascale Noyret E-mail:pascale.noyret@cerfacs.fr
CERFACS, 42 Av. Coriolis, 31057 TOULOUSE Cedex, FRANCE, (33) 61 19 30 79

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Fan, W C" <WCFAN@saix367.sandia.gov>

Are you using PVM today?
 YES
What are your application(s)?
 Radiation Transport
How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 Three
Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
 More examples on how to use PVM on a shared-memory
system efficiently and how to operate XPVM.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: YAMAMOTO Fujio <SJK24237@mgw.shijokyo.or.jp>

I would like to answer your questions:

Q. Are you using PVM today?
A. No. But I am just trying to install PVM3.3 on IBM PS/V
 machines with Linux Operating System. I expect to use
 it within a couple of weeks.

Q. What are your application(s)?
A. I am trying to build experimental environment
 for research on massively parallelizing
 software. I am especially interested in compiler
 and related tools for parallelization.

Q. How many and what kind of machines have you used with
PVM?
A. Two IBM PS/V Master and two SUN3 machines.

Thank you for your excellent software, PVM!
By the way, my e-mail address was change
as in the followings.
Please reflect this on the mailing list.

FUJIO YAMAMOTO
PROFESSOR
DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION AND
COMPUTER SCIENCES
KANAGAWA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
1030 Shimo-ogino, Atsugi-shi, Kanagawa
243-02 JAPAN
E-mail: SJK24237@mgw.shijokyo.or.jp
Tel: +81-462-41-1211$B!J(Jext. 3394$B!K(J
Fax: +81-462-42-8490

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Michael Lenke <lenke@informatik.tu-muenchen.de>

> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

>
> What are your application(s)?

An industrial CFD code to solve the Navier-Stokes equations called ParNsflex.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

We used PVM with Sun-, HP-, RS/6000-workstation clusters, SP1, SP2, Cray T3D.

>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
>

No.

Regards

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Lenke |
Institut f"ur Informatik | Arcisstr. 21
Lehrstuhl f"ur Rechnertechnik und | D-80290 Muenchen
Rechnerorganisation | Germany
Technische Universit"at M"unchen |
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Telephone: +49-89-2105-8243 FAX: +49-89-2105-8232
e-mail: lenke@informatik.tu-muenchen.de
-------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: george@aero.iitb.ernet.in (Abraham George)

Dear Sir,
	Sorry fro the delay. The replies to you questions :

	RE:	Are you using PVM today?

		no.

	RE:	What are your application(s)?

		grid generation package for computational fluid mechanics

	RE: How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

		SCO 3.2v4.2 on i80486	: 3
		LINUX 1.1.83 on i80486	: 1

	RE: Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

		I am using pvm3.3.5.
		I works fine on LINUX but..

		I had some problem while compiling and running it on SCO.
		I had to add -DNOWAIT3 flag in addition to those in SCO.def while compliling.

		While running, on typing pvm, I get the message 'terminated'.
		And this is what I have on /tmp/pvml.200
			[t80040000] ready 3.3.5 Sat Jan 21 21:37:03 1995
			[t80040000] evilsig() caught signal 11
			[t80040000] i_dump() 0 bytes total
			[t80040000] pvmbailout(-11)

		However, if I start pvmd3 in the background and then start pvm, it works.
		and /tmp/pvml.200 shows :
			[t80040000] ready 3.3.5 Sat Jan 21 21:39:53 1995

		Another problem in my SCO is that /bin/rsh is linked to /bin/sh and hence its exactly a remote shell.
		Though I liked PVM very much, I couldn't devote enough time to get it working on SCO.
		I would like to get in touch with other users running PVM on SCO 3.2v4.2.

		+---------+----------------------------------------------------------+
		| | |
		| \||?||/ | Abraham V. George |
		| d o-o b | Research Assistant, |
		| \ = / | AR&DB 3-D Multi-Block Grid Generation Project |
		| --\_/-- | Dept. of Aerospace Engg., IIT Bombay, |
		| | Bombay, INDIA. 400 076 |
		| | E-Mail george@aero.iitb.ernet.in Tel.5782547 ext. 2133 |
		+---------+----------------------------------------------------------+

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Soeren Olesen <olesen@cs.utk.edu>

> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

>
> What are your application(s)?

Image reconstruction for Positron Emission Tomography.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Cluster of up to 32 Sparc5 workstations.

>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

Improving performance for multicast on cluster of workstations.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: boothe@rmy.emory.edu (Ronald Boothe)
 *
 * Are you using PVM today?
I use it occasionally for converting from one file format to another.
It is one of those tools that even though I do not use it frequently,
it is very valuable at those times when I need it.
 *
 * What are your application(s)?
Ad hoc conversions from one file format to another.
 *
 * How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
Sun sparcstations running SunOs
 *

--
This message sent via email from
###########################################################################
Ron Boothe ||
Yerkes Research Center || email -- boothe@rmy.emory.edu
Emory University ||
Atlanta GA 30322 ||
(404) 727-7793 || FAX -- (404) 727-7845 or 727-0372
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Michael.Schmolders@HRZ.uni-dortmund.de (Michael Schmolders)
>
> Are you using PVM today?
 Only 3- or 4-times a year for educational purposes.

> What are your application(s)?
 Very simple programs to teach the behavior of pvm.
 (sum of numbers 1 to 2e8 divided into 4 partial sums, one partial sum running on
 one host)
 I am very interested in simple illustrative programs to show the behavior of
 parallel computing !!

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 2 SUNSOL4 Sparc Classic 16 MB
 1 SUN4 Sparc Classic 16 MB
 3 RS6K 22W, 25T, 990 16 MB/16 MB/512 MB
 1 HPPA 715/33 16 MB

--
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Michael Schmolders + E-Mail: M.Schmolders@hrz.uni-dortmund.de |
| Universitaet Dortmund + Phone: ++49 231 755 2717 |
| HRZ/S2 - Zentrale Server + TeleFax: ++49 231 755 2731 |
| D 44221 Dortmund + Adidasnet: August-Schmidt-Strasse 12 |
| Germany + GB V, Raum 235 (Campus Sued) |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------.-+
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <panizza@ibmrusso.dma.unina.it>

Sorry for the delay, but we have read your message just today ...
We are a research group and we are interestead for new releases about PVM.
So we answer your questions:

 1) We are using PVM rel. 3.3.4

 2) This version of PVM is used to improve programs to resolve systems of
 Volterra Integral Equation by using the methods Waveform Relaxations.

 3) We are using a cluster of IBM's Workstations RISC 6000.

In order to improve PVM, we suggest the implementation of some routines to
control the time of communication, time of calculations and so on.

 Your help is much appreciated.

Best wishes,

 dott. Ottone Nunzio
 dott. Panizza Carlo

email address: panizz@matna2.dma.unina.it

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Gilles Clugnac - TSC - Digital Equipment France <clugnac@swthom.enet.dec.com>

>Are you using PVM today ?
Rarely. I work sometime as a teacher in a school of enginers. Last year, I did
a course and labs on workstation farms and naturally used PVM.

>What are your application(s) ?
My students parallelized a RAY TRACING application.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM ?
About 10 DECstations 3100 and 5000 running Ultrix 4.3 .

bye

-gilles clugnac

email:
clugnac@swthom.enet.dec.com
or
clugnac@etna.int-evry.fr

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Angel Perles <aperles@pleione.cc.upv.es>

Dear PVM Project Team,

This mail is the reply to yours questions about our use of PVM.

>Are you using PVM today?

We use PVM in order to know the performance of this type of
environments in the development of concurrent discrete time
for the stadistical analysis of the output using replications method.

>What are yor application?

Our test application is based on SMPL discrete time simulator. The
application uses three kinds of processes: a user interface, a
server daemon that controls replications, and N concurrent replications
(instrumented in order to transfer their status to daemon). Simulation
ends when the user-especified end conditions are reached.

Whe are planning to use this method in more complex simulators.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used whith PVM?

We are using 5 HP9000/735, connected through a FDDI network.

>... sugestions ...

We think that would be interesting to add a library for made easy the
load analysis of hosts in the virtual machine.

Congratulations for PVM.
Best wishes,

Angel Francisco Perles Ivars
aperles@pleiades.upv.es
Universidad Politecnicas de Valencia
Valencia-Spain

Juan Jose Serrano Marti
juanjo@aii.upv.es
Departamento de Ingenieria de Sistemas, Computacion y Automatica
Universisdad Politecnica de Valencia
Valencia-Spain

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Antonio Jesus Nebro <nebro@tecma1.ctima.uma.es>

Dear Colleagues,
In reply to your mail about PVM, these are the answers to your questions:

"Are you using PVM today?":
	- Yes
"What are your application(s)?"
	- Educational
	- Implementation of a distributed deductive database system
	- Implementation of a prototype of a distributed object management
	system
"How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?"
	- We work with a network of 10 Sun workstations and 1 HP Apollo
	worstation.

Best Regards,

Antonio Nebro,
Jose Aldana.

.............................................................................
. Antonio Jesus Nebro Urbaneja	 Tel : +34 5 213 13 99 .
. Departamento de Lenguajes y Ciencias Fax : +34 5 213 13 97 .
. de la Computacion .
. Facultad de Informatica .
. Universidad de Malaga Email: antonio@lcc.uma.es .
. Plaza El Ejido, s/n nebro@tecma1.ctima.uma.es .
. 29013 Malaga (Spain). .
.............................................................................

.............................................................................
. Jose Francisco Aldana Montes Tel : +34 5 213 13 99 .
. Departamento de Lenguajes y Ciencias Fax : +34 5 213 13 97 .
. de la Computacion .
. Facultad de Informatica .
. Universidad de Malaga Email: aldana@tecma1.ctima.uma.es .
. Plaza El Ejido, s/n .
. 29013 Malaga (Spain). .
.............................................................................

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <BZook%ElectSys%SwRI15@D15VS178A.SPACE.SwRI.EDU>

Dear Colleague,

Here is my response to the recently posted PVM survey.

*** Are you using PVM today? ***

Yes

*** What are your application(s)? ***

a) We have parallelized (using PVM) our finite-difference time-domain (FDTD)
electromagnetic modeling code using domain decomposition; each slave takes a
partition of the problem. It is essentially a data-parallel algorithm,
requiring us to communicate values between adjacent slaves at their interfaces
(face, edge, or corner) every timesteps. Despite the large amount of
communication, it parallelizes quite well, mainly because communication
increases with the surface area of the problem space while the computations
scale as the volume.

b) We have parallelized a couple of our geophysical modeling programs that model
wave propagation between boreholes. The calculations are done in the frequency
domain. Each frequency is independent, so we parallelize on frequency using the
 master/slave model; as a slave finishes calculating the result at one
frequency, it is given another frequency to compute - easy load-balancing.
After broadcasting global variables at the beginning of the run, only 3 numbers
are communicated for each frequency.

*** How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM? ***

a) For the FDTD simulation, we have a single code which we have used on: IBM
RS/6000, HP9000-700 series, SPARC2, SPARCserver 630MP, iPSC/860, and CM-5. This
software works best on a homogeneous virtual machine.

b) For the geophysical applications, we regularly use a heterogeneous virtual
machine consisting of 4 workstations: HP9000-433, HP9000-720, SPARC2 (one node
of a 4-processor SPARCserver 630MP), and an old Sun4/260.

---
Brian Zook
Southwest Research Institute
San Antonio, Texas
bzook@swri.edu
210-522-3630

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: sushil@dws021.cs.unr.edu (Sushil Louis)

you wrote:
} Dear Colleague,
} In order to improve PVM we are trying to understand how
} people are using the system. Your feedback is important.
} Could you take a moment to answer three questions.
} Are you using PVM today?

YES

}
} What are your application(s)?
}

Genetic algorithms used in various (mostly) design applications.

} How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

SGIs and Decstation3000s

} Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
} Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
}

regards
--
Sushil J. Louis					sushil@cs.unr.edu
Department of Computer Science/171		Fax: (702) 784-1766
University of Nevada 				Tel: (702) 784-4315
Reno, NV 89557-0148
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: abhayr@parcom.ernet.in

Hi there
> Dear Colleague,
> In order to improve PVM we are trying to understand how
> people are using the system. Your feedback is important.
> Could you take a moment to answer three questions.
>
> Are you using PVM today?
 Yes
>
> What are your application(s)?
 FFTs, CFD problems, seismic data processing
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 DEC 3000, DEC 2100 Servers, 21064-300MHz based evaluation boards,
 SS-10s.
>

Bye
Abhay Ranade
CDAC, Pune
INDIA

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <vthomas@VNET.IBM.COM> (Vince P Thomas)

Are you using PVM today?
Yes, though not all the time. Other members of the Scientific centre
also use it

What are your application(s)?
My application uses PVM to implement a parallel (or more correctly
distributed) genetic algorithm

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
IBM SP2, and clusters of RS6000 workstations.

We like it! Keep up the good work. PVM is my first choice for a
parallel application although I was veryfond of the Linda pardigm

Vincent Thomas, IBM United Kingdom Scientific Centre
email: vthomas@vnet.ibm.com
phone: 44 962 815682
fax: 44 962 818932

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: HACHISU Yoshinari <hachisu@agusa.nuie.nagoya-u.ac.jp>

Hello. I'm sorry for sending mail lately.

> Dear Colleague,
> In order to improve PVM we are trying to understand how
> people are using the system. Your feedback is important.
> Could you take a moment to answer three questions.
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

> What are your application(s)?

Distributed TRS(Term Rewriting System).

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

MACHINE OS CPU NUMBER
Solbourne Series5/600E SunOS 4.1.1 sparc 1
R6000 RISC/os 4.52C RC6280 1
NeXT station(Turbo) NeXTSTEP 3.2J 68040 3
Power Challenge L IRIX 6.0 R8000 *4 1(4 CPU)

I execute application with PVM on a maximum of 4 machines.

------- HACHISU Yoshinari ---------------------
 Internet: hachisu@agusa.nuie.nagoya-u.ac.jp
 Nifty-Serve(BBS in Nippon): HHC00775
------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: overeind@fwi.uva.nl (Benno J. Overeinder)

Are you using PVM today?

Yes, I do.

What are your application(s)?

I give parallel program courses with use of PVM to our students.
As an other part of the course, they get problems which they have
to implement with use of PVM. The problems are typically: Monte Carlo
integration, Metropolis algorithm, Particle methods, CG methods,
Cellular Automata. Scientific computing in general.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

We use PVM on our network of SUN stations, SunOS4 and Solaris,
and on a Parsytec GCel-3, 512 node T800 parallel multicomputer, and
a Parsytec PowerXplorer, 32 node PowerPC parallel multicomputer.

Regards,

Benno

--
 Benno Overeinder			 Computer Systems Department
 voice: (+31) 20 525 7536		 University of Amsterdam
 fax: (+31) 20 525 7490		 Kruislaan 403, 1098 SJ Amsterdam
 e-mail: overeind@fwi.uva.nl		 The Netherlands
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Ulrich Meier" <umeier@idefix.cologne.sgi.com>
>
> Are you using PVM today?
 Yes
>
> What are your application(s)?
>
 Chemistry: MD-Codes and "ab initio"

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

 shared memory SGI Challenge systems (up 16 R8000 cpus) and workstation
clusters (up to 8 workstations)
>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

 A better support for shared memory and clusters of shared memory
systems,becuse the future will be a shared memory non-uniform access
(NUMA) machine

regards, Ulrich

-----------------------------------------------------------

 Dr. Ulrich Meier Software Project Manager Chemistry
 SiliconGraphics GmbH
 Friederich-Karl-Strasse 101
 D-50735 Koeln

 phone +49 221 7152432
 fax +49 221 7152420

 email umeier@cologne.sgi.com
 voicemail # 59649 mailstop ICO-316

-----------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: vasudeva@litho.ucalgary.ca (Kris Vasudevan 220-7923)

Re: pvm survey

Dear Sir,

My apologies for responding to your survey somewhat slowly.

(1) Are you using PVM today?

 Not yet. We have received your software. We hope to get to the
 installation of PVM in the next 4 to 8 weeks.

(2) What are your application(s)?

 Seismic application. Specifically, I would like to try the PVM
 environment to run simulated annealing algorithm and genetic algortihm
 applications to non-linear problems in crustal reflection seismology.

(3) How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

 We have a SUN cluster ranging from SUN ipcs to Sparc 2s. We are
 hoping to get specific seismic applications to run in this
 environment.

Kris Vasudevan
LITHOPROBE Seismic Processing Facility
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Agustin Lopez Neira <zi93f043@circe.etsiig.uniovi.es>

Hello!
In response for your tree cuestions, I'm using PVM for practises in my
University with FFT algorithms.
The machines with I'm using for are LINUX PC's, and some hosts's counts
in hp9000/300, a VAX machine and VAX machine.
I realize performance test with FFT over this machines.

If you like to ask me any question you can mail me, ok?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: shunli@slow.cs.usu.edu (Shun-Li Huang)

Are you using PVM today?
Ans: Yes.

What are your application(s)?
Ans: Solving TSP by Parallel Recombinative Simulated Annealing (PRSA) developed
 by Dr. Goldberg.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
Ans: HP 9000/700 series and SUN/SPARC work stations.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: mholin@bla.robin.de (Michael Holin)
>
> Are you using PVM today?

No. I used it for my diploma in computer science.

> What are your application(s)?

I wrote a parallel FFT algorithm for greyscaled images.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

It runned on a network of 4 DEC Alpha and 3 DEC decstations.

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

Debugging the code on the slaves was quite uggly.
And the memory consumption was very high. I had to transfer pieces
of images to and from the slaves. It seems that pvm buffers the
data 2 or 3 times, so that the slaves often had to swap, which
caused the algorithm to work fast only on quite small images.

But nevertheless, a great piece of code.

greetings

Michael

## Michael Holin, Buchrainweg 61, 63069 Offenbach, Germany
## Phone: +49 69 833587, Fax: +49 69 845242, CIS: 100441.1366
## Internet: mholin@bla.robin.de, Fido: 2:244/1600.25
--
## Michael Holin, Buchrainweg 61, 63069 Offenbach, Germany
## Phone: +49 69 833587, Fax: +49 69 845242, CIS: 100441.1366
## Internet: mholin@bla.robin.de, Fido: 2:244/1600.25
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Adam R. Nolan" <anolan@ece.uc.edu>
>
	Sorry this took so long, I was in hiding for a while.

>
> Are you using PVM today?
	Yes,
> What are your application(s)?
	Computer Vison Algorithms... looking at optimizing the distributed
algorithms using expected execution time distributions
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
	MasParr, Suns, YMP, KSR(RIP)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <juhasz@miat0.vein.hu>

Here are the answers to your survey from the
Department of Infomation Systems, University of Veszprem,
Veszprem, Hungary

1. Are you using PVM today?

Yes, we use PVM 3.3.5

2. What are your application(s)?

Mainly Image Processing, Computer Vision, some Scientific Computing.

3. How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

We use 8 HP Apollo Model 7125/75 workstations, currently connected by thin
Ethernet, but soon using a 150 MBs ATM network.

Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
We are looking forward to new, lightweight protocols to reduce communications
latency and overhead. This is essential to benefit from ATM-like network speeds.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Stefan Rupprecht <birdy@uni-paderborn.de>

> Are you using PVM today?

Yes, since one year.

> What are your applications?

I develop a prototyp of a distributed manufacturing controll system.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Up to 5 machines (LINUX SUN4 SGI SUN4SOL2).

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

Since I use instead of SIMD a distributed set of prozesses solving
diffrent tasks, I would like to have something like a name/event
server and other services of CORBA.

Bye, Stefan Rupprecht
birdy@uni-paderborn.de
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Georg Stellner <stellner@informatik.tu-muenchen.de>
>
> Are you using PVM today?
Yes.
>
> What are your application(s)?
In particular I have no PVM application. I'm involved in writting tools for PVM
applications like performace analysis tools, debuggers and a visualization
tool. Most part of my work is covered by a tool project were we try to develop
a tool which allows people to create consistent checkpoints of running PVM
applications.
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
30 Sun Sparc machines (ELC, Classic Sparc II and Sparc 10), 4 IBM model 3BT and
an Intel Paragon.

Georg

--
Georg Stellner stellner@informatik.tu-muenchen.de+------------
Institut fuer Informatik, SAB phone: +49-89-2105-2689 | (())_-_(())
Technische Universitaet Muenchen fax: +49-89-2105-8232 | | (* *) |
D-80290 Muenchen room: S 1211 | { \_@_/ }
http://wwwbode.informatik.tu-muenchen.de/~stellner | `-----'
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: xzhu@itsa.ucsf.EDU (Xiaoming Zhu)

We use pvm for medical image processing. We have about 8 Sparc-LX
machines and a few Sparc-20 connected in a local Ethernet LAN.
In the near future, some of the machine will be on ATM. It seems
to me that pvm software has problem to be compiled in a SUNMP
architecture running solaris 2.3.

PVM is a useful software. I wish someday its communication
speed can be improved.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Loh Kok Jien <kjloh@sentosa.sas.ntu.ac.sg>

>
Hi,
	I am really sorry for the delay.
>
> Are you using PVM today?
Yes.
>
> What are your application(s)?
I am doing a Linda-like programming system using PVM on heterogenous networks of
computers. This will be my Master thesis.
I'll be focus on the issues of the efficiency of the kernel. I am doing my best
to complete it with solely pvm.
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
I have a few types of machines to use ie. RS6k, SUN, APLHA, IBM SP2, and SGI
indigo(but I have compilation problem in installing PVM in SGI machine).
But so far I have been working on Alpha and Sun machines.
>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
Sorry, not at the moment. Will be post them if I have any.

Thank for your time.

Best,
--
Kok-Jien Loh
Division of Computer Engineering _/ _/ _____/ _/ _/
School of Applied Science _/_/ _/ _/ _/ _/
Nanyang Technological University _/ _/_/ _/ _/ _/
Singapore. _/ _/ _/ ___/

Email :kjloh@sentosa.sas.ntu.ac.sg
 askjloh@ntuvax.ntu.ac.sg
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: martinbm@fwi.uva.nl (Martin Bergman)

L.S.

>Are you using PVM today?
>
Yes

>What are your application(s)?
>
Solving linear systems and domain decomposition.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
Used on: - a network of Sun workstations
	 - Parsytec GCel
	 - Parsytec PowerXplorer
	 - IBM SP1

Regards,

Martin Bergman
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Vladimir Vlasov <vlad@it.kth.se>

> Are you using PVM today?

Yes. Today, yesterday and even tomorrow.

> What are your application(s)?

Research in parallel & distributed computing environment
based on message passing,
and its verification using numerical, image & video processing
applications.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Now:	Sun4, SPARC (about 30) and Sequent Symmetry.
Future: SP2, Parsytec GC/Power Plus (PVM for it?)

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

SUGGESTION:

Functions to manipulate
contents/messages of send/received buffers like:
(1) prepend data to the active send buffer;
(2) concatenation of two packed messages from
 two send buffer;
(3) additional unpacking EXTRACT procedure(s)
 I mean,
 if user unpacks something from receive buffer
 then this part of message is EXTRACTED from
 buffer with following consequence:
	(a) as a result of extraction, message has been changed,
	(b) length of message in buffer has been decreased.

QUESTION
	Have you PVM for multiprocessors with transputers, in particular
	Parsytec GC, etc.?

> Best wishes,
> The PVM Project Team

Thanks.
Good luck,

Vladimir Vlassov
	Dept. of Teleinformatics
	Royal Institute of Technology
	Electrum 204, S-164 40, Kista
	Sweden

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Thomas Maxwell" <maxwell@cbl.umd.edu>

> Are you using PVM today?

Not yet, but planning to use it soon (within a month or two).

> What are your application(s)?

Distributed spatio-temporal simulaton.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Sun SparcStations, CM5, and Cray T3D are initially targeted.

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

Would like to see a version for the Power Macintosh desktop computer.

Regards,
-Tom

__________________________________________________________________________
Thomas P Maxwell, Research Scientist:
Distributed Modular Spatio-Temporal Simulation
Md. International Institute for Ecological Economics
University of Maryland
URL: http://kabir.umd.edu/Tom/Maxwell.html

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: wdu@UnbSJ.CA (Weichang Du)

Are you using PVM today? yes.

What are your application(s)?

 High-level, declarative, application parallel programing systems
 Parallel programming languages
 Parallel compilers

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

10 Sun Sparcstations (Solaris 1, 2) and PCs (Linux)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: ajohnson@math.ukans.edu (Aaron M. Johnson)

 > Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

 > What are your application(s)?

A undergraduate research project in numerical analysis with
Dr. Ben Leimkuhler at the University of Kansas. I am currently
developing a program to solve spin waves. Simulating a piece of
magnetic tape as a pseudo 2-D surface of vectors(rods) pointing in the
direction of the rods spin axis. There is heavy communication between
neighbor rods and the size of the blocks to break the computation into
needs to be optimized. Space parallization is all I have implemented
so far, but I hope to get far enough to also implement time
parallization methods with multigrid.

 > How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

I have used it on a network of 16 SUN4 machines, and a stand alone
LINUX platform. But I'm having trouble spawning slaves in LINUX, so
my experience is limited.

 > Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

I'm new to C and to parallel computing. I am also a undergrad looking
for "summer opportunities". If there is some way for you to
put me in touch with people offering internships, workshops, and such,
please pass this along.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: koz@olympic.jpl.nasa.gov (Koz Tembekjian)

We are using PVM 3.3.6
Variuos. The system is open to wide number of users
SUNs and Intel Paragon (56 node)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: besche@isty-info.uvsq.fr (Denis BESCHE)

Are you using PVM today?
Yes, I'm making a few applications for my school (I'm actually studying
parallelism with PVM).

What are your application(s)?
There is a program of matrix products and a program which use a pipeline
to evaluate an expression.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
I have used a PC under LINUX, a HP800 and some SUN4.
I have no special problem to install it, but a documentation would be welcome.

Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
When a task is spwaned, the output is put into a file (pvml...). It's OK,
but this is done only when the task exit (pvm_exit) so when you're debbuging,
you can't see what's happen.
(If there is a way to do that on PVM, don't take care of it.)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: eilers@wrcs1.urz.uni-wuppertal.de (Michael Eilers)
>
Dear Colleagues,
At first I want to answer the three questions:

No, I haven't used PVM during the last weeks. A few month ago I installed PVM on several workstations and tested it.
I found it working very well, but hard to develop PVM-programs.

In the (hopefully) near future I want to start programming a solver for large systems of linear equations using the PVM-system.
I'm especially interested in using PVM under LINUX.

I installed PVM on an DECstation5000(Ultrix), on 3 SGI Challenge(Irix), on 2 IBM/RS6000(Aix) and on an i486 under LINUX.
All machines run very well,
at least the testing-programs, but I met a problem on the i486: It is impossible to add new machines to an virtual machine from
the i486, but it is possible to add the i486 to a virtual machine startet on one of the other workstations.

As I said, I'm interested in using PVM on a Cluster of PC's that will be installed at my site in the near future. My first (weak)
attempt to develop my own PVM-programs failed and I found the documentation of PVM not so helpful as it should be. I missed more
examples of numerical programs.

I'm shure that PVM has a great future.
Best wishes,
Michael Eilers

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Patrick TESSIER <ptessier@matra-ms2i.fr>

We are currently developping a CASE tool that allow developper to
graphically specify
their parallel application program in such a way to define software objects
and communications between them.

The goal of that tool is to be able to fully describe the software without any
hardware deifnition nor constraints.

The hardware that will run the application software is also graphically define
such as processors boards connected on various kind of buses or hardware
platform. For example, you are able to specify a hardware composed of
multiple VME boards with one of them connected as a node to a PVM
bus together with a parallel supercomputer such as CAPITAN using message
passing communication and so on.

Code generators are part of the CASE tool and create the appropiate code
to run and to make all the software object (seen as subroutines) to communicate
together using the hardware platform that has been drawed.

Communication code is as close as the one a developper will have developped
by hand for the hardware he designed.

In such a tool, PVM is one of the communication system known by the
CASE tool along with direct shared memory communication or CAPITAN communication
primitives and others.

Our applications are mainly image and signal processing and use Real time
parallel system.
The CASE tool is a real time application specifier.

To day we have validate the PVM platform in our tool on SUN4 only, but we
plan to use other kind of Unix platform in the near future.

I hope that theses informations will be of some interest for you
and i still available for more detailed information on the CapCASE tool
product if you need it.

The CAPITAN/CapCASE project Team

Patrick TESSIER MATRA CAP Systemes (33 1) 34 63 72 45
 Fax: (33 1) 34 63 72 50

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Cyril Gobrecht <gobrecht@atlantic.cs.unb.ca>

Dear Colleagues,
> Are you currently using PVM?
Yes !!!
>
> What are your application(s)?
I'm developping a 3D animated debugger on Silicon Graphics to test new
ideas on how to visualize parallel processing. This project is part of
my Master's Thesis.
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
5 SGI's and 10 RS6000.

Thank you for publishing the results...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <jvbutera@eos.ncsu.edu>
>
> Are you currently using PVM?
Yes

> What are your application(s)?
Primarily the parallelization of optimization packages, usually
by evaluating the gradient (via finite differences) in parallel.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
I have installed it on one cluster of 13 IBM RISC's, mostly
for testing, etc. Real work is on 4 dedicated IBM 390 RISC's
devoted primarily to PVM. We may be adding 2 or 4 more RISC's
to this "dedicated" cluster in the next year or so pending grant money.

--
Jeff Butera
Math Graduate Student - North Carolina State University
http://www2.ncsu.edu/eos/users/j/jvbutera/www/
jvbutera@eos.ncsu.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: pr90013@ulise.cs.pub.ro (Berindei Gh. Stefan Alexandru)

>Are you using PVM today?

	** yes, PVM is a part of the course "Distribuited Languages
	 Programming" at out university ( Polytechnical University
	 of Bucharest )

>What are your application(s)?

	** the applications which use PVM used here : Maisie Language and
	 Glenda Language ;
	** we write a run-time kernel for Glenda ( Linda ) as theme for
	 our laboratoury ( I'm a student )
	** I'm looking for a theme for my graduate project
	 and I'll be greatfull if you may suggest any DIRECTION or
	 THEME to develop that program or if you can give me any
 information about it. If you have any suitable documentation
 	 I would very much like to study it.
	( I must finish my graduate
	 project until 10 JUNY that means I can do about 4 mounths of
	 programming work , which I WOULD LIKE to do for something
	 concerning PVM . So I'd like if you can help me with a theme.)

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

	** we have installed PVM only on 2 machines:
		DEC Personal System 5000/25
		HP 750

	I look forward to hearing from you as soon as you can at the
 E-mail address pr90013@ulise.cs.pub.ro

					Alexandru Berindei.

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Niek Verhoeven <N.Verhoeven@swansea.ac.uk>
							Swansea, UK
							Sat Jan 28 1995

Dear Sir or Madam

I hereby send you the reply to your three questions. Sorry about the delay.

1. Are you using PVM today?
 PVM and MPI (MPICH) are used on a regular bases although not daily by me.

2. What are your application(s)?
 i. gaining an understanding of message passing
 ii. developing a parallel unstructured mesh generator for
 potential use in grand challenge problems.

3. How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 i. A network of approx. 12 SUN4 workstations.
 ii. A dedicated ATM network of 4 SGI5 workstations
 iii. A 4-processor SGI Challenge (will be upgraded to 4 R8000 chips)
 iv. The Edinburgh (UK) Cray T3D

Discussion are currently going on to switch completely to MPI.
One reason is the difference between network PVM and Cray T3D PVM.
A network MPI and Cray T3D MPI should be identical???

Yours sincerely

Niek Verhoeven
Senior Research Assistant
Dept. of Civil Engineering
Univ. of Wales Swansea
UK

N.Verhoeven@swansea.ac.uk
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Alessandro Pregarz <pregarz@gems755.ogs.trieste.it>
>
> Are you using PVM today?
we are just looking at it (ver 3.3).
>
> What are your application(s)?
we intend to use PVM to simulate elastic waves propagation in a 2D
domain (and later 3D).
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
only HP7xx and Apollo; about 7 workstations
>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
hope to give you as soon as possible ant suggestion!

best regards
--
###########################################
# Pregarz Alessandro #
# OGS - Osservatorio Geofisico di Trieste #
# Borgo Grotta Gigante #
# tel.:+39 40 2140260 - fax.:+39 40 327307#
# e-mail: pregarz@gems755.ogs.trieste.it #
###########################################
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Fredrik.Manne@nho.hydro.com (Fredrik Manne)

I am currently using PVM.

My application are related to the oil industry, (seismic processing,
reservoir simulation).

I am using up to 10 machines. Types include Sun, Ibm, SGI

Comments:
I would like to be able to start an interactive program under XPVM
without having to do any changes to the program.
 _______
Fredrik Manne Phn: +47 55 996496 `/_/_|_\_\ ` The Rain In Spain
Informatics section Fax: +47 55 996690 ` | oo ` Falls Mainly In
Norsk Hydro A.S. fmanne@bg.nho.hydro.com ` | < ` Bergen.
N-5020 Bergen,Norway http://www.ii.uib.no/~fredrikm J -- `

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: ismisa@wi.uni-muenster.de (Mika Saastamoinen)

Well, hi to you too! :)

>In order to improve PVM we are trying to understand how
>people are using the system. Your feedback is important.
>Could you take a moment to answer three questions.

Sure, no problem. I would be very interested in the results as well. When will
they be ready?

> Are you currently using PVM?

Yes, sort of. I'm just "evaluating" (i.e. experimenting with) it as a school
project. That's why I'd be interested in the results of this survey. I'd like
to mention in my own project report what sort of things people are using PVM
for.

> What are your application(s)?

Just a simple Mandelbrot fractal generator. The image is generated by
identical slave processes running in parallel, each slave computing a 128x128
pixel block of the image. The master program collects the blocks, displays
them to the user and takes care of user I/O. Works very nicely, cool
pictures... :)

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Well, I could use upto about 30-35 machines, but usually I use about a dozen
machines. Most of them are SUN4SOL2s with a couple SUN4s and a few RS6Ks.
SUN4SOL2s are in the local institute LAN, so I normally use just those, the
rest are in the wider university network and usually too "crowded" to be worth
adding to my PVM.

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

Well, I can't think of anything right now, I'll let you know if I come up with
something. As a general comment, though, I have to say that PVM is a great
piece of software, works just great! Keep it up!

>Your help is much appreciated.

No problemo...

>Best wishes,
>The PVM Project Team

-MiS-
--
Mr. Mika Saastamoinen (ismisa@wi.uni-muenster.de || mikasaas@utu.fi)
	Comes from Finland, the Funland, but is currently an exchange
	student in WWU Mnster in Germany. For more information, see
	http://www.utu.fi/~mikasaas

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <hdc@ctrhdc2.CT.ornl.gov>

We use PVM on rs6k workstations to develop message passing programs for
molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo simulations of fluids and amorphous
materials. We later run the codes on SP2 machines (at ORNL and Maui) and
Paragon machines (using NX message passing).

--------------------------------------------------------
H. D. Cochran tel 615/574-6821
Chemical Technology Division fax 615/241-4829
Oak Ridge National Laboratory email hdc@ornl.gov
Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6224 (USA)
--------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: carol.tumey@meipws.mis.mei.com (Carol Tumey)

While rather new at this, for sake of adding statistics...

I have just started working with PVM (nice set of documentation BTW)
and will be using it to investigate the design and implementation
of parallel algorithms with loosely-coupled processors. I will
be comparing PVM to alternative methods including SMP, along with
a comparison of MIMD vs SIMD.

Initially I will be using PVM on a small Linux network and then
branch it to a network consisting of Alphas and Sparcs. If a
Windows NT version doesn't exist, I'll be looking at getting the
source code running under NT, particularly on a multi-processor
NT machine. Having ported realtime, socket applications to NT
before I'm optimistic, although I've not looked at the source
code yet. Ask me again after the first attempted compile :-)

Thanks for your library. What I've seen so far is very promising
and I look forward to working with it.

Carol

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: tmorgan@kgn.ibm.com (Tom Morgan)

I am using pvm 3.3.6 on the IBM SP-2 to parallelize and optimize seismic
processing codes. In the past, I have also done this on RS/6000 clusters.
-Tom
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <zannoni@boifzc.cineca.it>

a) Are you using PVM today?

 yes. in our group we use pvm as the default platform to run our simulations

b) What are your application(s)?

 We are mainly concerned about Monte Carlo simulations of liquid crystalline
 phases

c) How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

 we have access to five workstation HP9000/700 (two 720 and three
 735) connected with a standard ethernet link

comments: well, we are very happy with pvm and its related software.
 we sincerely hope this project will continue and will improve
 in the future keeping its freeware availability.

roberto berardi

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: andy@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov (Andy Boden)
>
> Are you currently using PVM?

 Yes

>
> What are your application(s)?

 Computationally intensive astronomical image processing
(deconvolution) coarse-grain split across workstations. C++
implementation

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

 Approx 30 unix workstations, Sparc 2s, 10s, 20s, and SGI Extreme
IIs.

 I have also tried (and failed) to use PVM on an Intel paragon.
There appears to be some incompatability between g++ (the only C++
compiler available for the paragon) and PVM. For the record, the
stock master/slave example (made ANSI-compliant) compiles and runs
correctly using gdb, but locks-up on the first pvm call when the EXACT
same code is compiled with g++.

"...it doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter
how smart you are -- if it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong."

						- R.P. Feynman
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Robert Indik" <indik@math.arizona.edu>

> Are you using PVM today?
 yes
>
> What are your application(s)?
Modeling semiconductor light amplifiers+lasers
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
CM5 (128 nodes),
SP2(400 nodes),
 Silicon Graphis Indy (1), Crimson(1) Power Challenge (4 proc),
 sun spracstations(23)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: barr@smuseq.seas.smu.edu (Dr. Richard Barr)

> Are you using PVM today?
Not on a regular basis, but plan to resume use.

>
> What are your application(s)?
Optimization algorithms and teaching parallel programming

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
4 Decstations. The performance was really not acceptable for any useful work.

I tried to install PVM 3.0 on our Sequent under Dynix 3.0.12, and was not
successful---this was extremely disappointing, as it would be used in a
nationally broadcast class on parallel programming if available.

Thanks,
Dick Barr
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Encarnacion Munoz <encarna@denim.upm.es>

Are you using PVM today? yes

What are your application(s)? General Physics an nuclear fusion

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM? CRAY-YMP EL, sun 4,
sun IPC, alpha Digital, axil 235

Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
 I find sometimes problems in syncronitation.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Marta Velarde <marta@denim.upm.es> (Tel 34-1-3363110)

------------------------------ Start of body part 1

ANSWER :
	1. Yes, I am.
	2. In Nuclear Physics and general Physics
	3. Cray-ymp , SUN(4/10,4/20,IPC ...), AXIL235, alpha digital
	4. Suggetions:
		Many problems with sincronization with heterogeneus machines(CRAY-digital-SUN)

------------------------------ Start of body part 2

	Marta Velarde
	System manager & profesor
	Polythecnic University of Madrid
	 E.T.S.I.I.
	c/Jose Gutierrez Abascal n0. 2
 28006 Madrid
	 SPAIN

		phone: 34-1-3363110/08/09
 fax: 3363002
 email:(X400) marta@denim.upm.es
 (internet) marta@mozart.denim.upm.es

------------------------------ End of body part 2
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: wolff@inf.fu-berlin.de (Thomas Wolff)

Are you using PVM today?
Yes.

What are your application(s)?
On the implementation level in a distribution system for object-oriented
programs (PVM not to be used by the actual programmers).

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
A few. Sparc stations. Use of PCs would be of high interest for us!

Thomas Wolff@inf.fu-berlin.de
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: matthias.linke@inf.uni-rostock.de (Matthias Linke)

 Hi folks !!
> Are you using PVM today?
 Yes, I'm using PVM.
> What are your application(s)?
 We run a Computation of a flow in a channel. But mainly we use PVM for
 some research actions on mapping and loadbalancing, respectively.
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 We use PVM on a RS6000-cluster. It runs on 15 workstations.
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
 Your WWW-page is very good.

 Greetings, Matthias.

	Matthias Linke
	University of Rostock
	Department of Computer Science
	Parallel- and Supercomputing
	18051 Rostock
	Germany

	Tel	Germany-0381-4983374
	email	matthias.linke@inf.uni-rostock.de
		tfb013@cks1.rz.uni-rostock.de

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Matthew H. Bassett" <bassett@ecn.purdue.edu>

I have not used PVM in the past year or so but have introduced at
least three people in the department to the power of PVM. My first
experience with PVM was as a summer intern two summers ago when we
used PVM to parallelize a Monte Carlo batch facility simulation using
the in-house SGI's (16 processors) and Sun (2 processors)
workstations.

The people I have introduced PVM to have used it for Monte Carlo
molecular simulations and parallelizing XPS surface analysis.

From my summer experience I found a drawback was the inability for PVM
to realize that some of the SGI's used were multi-processor machines,
requiring me to spawn extra jobs on these machines manually. Also the
speed variable never seemed to vary from architecture to architecture
or machine to machine.

Hope that this helps in the improvement of PVM.

Matt

-- Matt Bassett Dept. of ChE Purdue University West Lafayette, IN 47907 bassett@ecn.purdue.edu http://atsp.ecn.purdue.edu:8080/bassett/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: lpaucar@dsee.fee.unicamp.br (Vicente Leonardo Paucar Casas)

Are you currently using PVM?
 Yes, I have been using PVM these two last months
 in the UNICAMP Electric Power Systems laboratory

Whar are your application(s)?
 My applications are devoted to parallel transient stability analysis
 in multimachine electric power systems.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 I have used up to 16 SUN SPARC stations in our laboratory.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: asada@dsee.fee.unicamp.br (Eduardo Nobuhiro Asada)

ANSWERS:

 The answer of the first question is yes. I'm on the third year of electrical engineering and I'm on the begining of the study whith PVM .
 The applications that I intend to use PVM is energy distribution.
 I have used about 17 machines with the SUN4 and SUN4SOL2 architeture.

				Eduardo Nobuhiro Asada

		e-mail	asada@dsee.fee.unicamp.br
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: scherr@fim.wpafb.af.mil (Stephen Scherr)

Are you using PVM today?
yes

What are your application(s)?
computational fluid dynamics, computational electromagnetics

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
workstations--IBM, SGI, SUN
MPP--Paragon, SP2, T3D

Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
I am revising most of my work to use MPI with a PVM transport layer.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Rafael Men\indez de LLano Rozas" <rafa@ctrhp4.unican.es>
--
Rafael MENENDEZ DE LLANO ROZAS | E-mail: rafa@ctr.unican.es
Departamento de Electronica |
UNIVERSIDAD DE CANTABRIA |
39071 SANTANDER (SPAIN) |

Hello:

 The answer is:

 We are using the pvm software now.

 Our reseach area is the computer arquitecture, and we use the pvm
 software for simulacion of routers. Also, we are interested in
 distributed systems. In fact we are doing something similar to
 pvm with petri nets for to describe the program and annealing
 to distributing the load of system.

 We are a new group and in this moment we have 3 machines: a hp 735,
 a hp 715, and a dec alpha axp1. In the future we "grow up" the
 computer's park with 5 new machines. We don't know the models yet.

 If you need something more, I'm happy to help you.

					 Thank's

					 Rafa.

 of
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <cwedge@NMSU.Edu>

reply to survey
1) not currently using pvm, last used version was pvm 3.1 (+ some .2 patches)
2) last use was to solve 1-D finite-difference equation written in
 fortran 77, in parallel using 10 processors/processes.
3) successfully implemented using: SUN4, SGI-Indigo, HP, IBM RS6K as
 heterogeneous network at 1 campus.
4) Cut processing from 2 hrs down to 44 minutes using 4 processors.
5) improvements: list machine name next to process id when using
 the pvm console mode to show status... most others that i had
 were already implemented, keep up the good work, Craig Wedge
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: merdi@tngstar.cray.com (Merdi Rafiei)
>
> Are you using PVM today?
>
Yes

> What are your application(s)?
>
Simple programs to be used in PVM training classes

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Cray YMP and T3D systems
>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
>
The code examples in the ug.ps could be more detailed. For example, I
still don't know how to use pvm_nrecv (PVMFNRECV) effectively.

> Your help is much appreciated.
>
Regards,
Merdi Rafiei
merdi@cray.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Sami Saarinen <sbs@csc.fi>

Jack & the Team,

Here comes my answers!

> Are you currently using PVM?

Yes.

> What are your application(s)?

I've implemented the most important (what ever they are!) MPI calls
with PVM, so that our weather forecast code could make use of MPI
calling syntax during the development phase on IBM SP1. This work
was completed in August. Report is available soon and
a draft is available under http://www.csc.fi/faces/sami.html

I'm being completed with my Parallel Computing guide (written in Finnish)
which practically is fully based on PVM examples.
(I will send you and Vaidy a copy when its ready; probably in March).

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

A typically 4-8 machines / nodes from our 24-proc SP2 is allocated to
parallel jobs. They use PVMe 3.x. But have individuals who run on
other platforms here too. Those systems are: 10 and 6 proc SGI Power
Challenge (R8000) with 2GB and 1GB of memory respectively; SGI-network
of couple of WSs; Convex C3840; Cray XMP-EA/464 (soon to be replaced
by Cray C94). Next year we will start to practice with ~200 node T3E,
too!

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

The product is great. It's hard to find any weak points except
performance. But I feel that PVM on RISC-stations is a tool for
"proof-of-concept" and a "development platform" for fast
PVM implementations on the proprietary machines/networks like T3E.
Once your idea works on RISC-machines, you can safely transfer it
to faster systems with better performance.

But nevertheless, my wish list contains:

- Please have an option for combination of PvmDataInPlace + PvmDataRaw
- remove stride=1 limitation in PvmDataInPlace messages
- merge pvmd & pvm-group daemons since vendors seem to have done that, too.
 (f.e. on Cray T3D & Convex SPP)

Good luck!

rgds,

Sami

 o---------------------------------------o------------------------------------o
 ! Sami Saarinen ! email: sbs@csc.fi !
 ! Principal Analyst (MSc in Mech.Eng.) ! Sami.Saarinen@csc.fi !
 ! Center for Scientific Computing (CSC) ! Tel: +358 -0- 457 2713 (Int) !
 ! P.O. Box 405, Tietotie 6 ! 90- 457 2713 (Nat) !
 ! FIN-02101 Espoo ! Fax: +358 -0- 457 2302 or !
 ! Finland ! 464 803 !
 o---------------- URL: http://www.csc.fi/faces/sami.html --------------------o

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Paul Janssen <paulja@sci.kun.nl>

1. Yes I am using PVM today.

2. Parallel best merge, image processing

3. +/- 25 machines, SUN workstations connected by an ethernet
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jalel Chergui <Jalel.Chergui@idris.fr>

~~~> Are you using PVM today?
With some of my colleagues, we are giving courses all over France on
message passing modele with PVM. The course has been written in french and
could be accessed at ftp://ftp.ifremer.fr/ifremer/ditigo/pvm. Any comments on
the course would be appreciated.

~~~> What are your application(s)?
Mostly in concern with fluid mechanic applications. IDRIS (Institut du
Developpement et des Ressources en Informatique Scientifique) is the French
National scientific Computer center in which our job consists partly in
porting sequential applications on vector or/and parallel computers.

~~~> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
Workstations (IBM, DEC, HP), vector computers (Cray C94, C98), T3D and a
virtual machine composed of all of them AND IT WORKS FINE !

~~~> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
Performance improvements are needed on tracing events with that beautefull
tool called XPVM. Introducing Context, Static groups and faster heterogeneous
encoding would surely improve PVM performance.

*----------------------------------------------------------------------------*
| Jalel CHERGUI |
| IDRIS/CNRS |
| Batiment 506 - B.P. 167 - 91403 Orsay Cedex - France |
| Tlphone : 33. 1. 69.82.42.74 Adresse Web: <http://www.idris.fr/~chergui>|
| Tlcopie : 69.28.52.73 Messagerie : Jalel.Chergui@idris.fr |
*----------------------------------------------------------------------------*

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <c.oliveira@ic.ac.uk>

First the reply to your questions

1) Yes I am using PVM daily

2) Finite element and Monte Carlo applications

3) From 1 to 64 processors/nodes

 Dec 5000/240 and 5000/133 (ULTRIX 4.2)
 Dec AXP 3000/300 and 3000/600 (OSF-1)
 SGI Indigo
 Sun-4/330, Sun SLC SunOS 4.0.1 4.1
 Cray YMP (UNICOS)
 Cray T3D
 Ipsc 860 Hypercube

I am quite plesed with the way PVM works and installation and upgrading
on the different platform have required very little effort.

Regards

Cassiano de Oliveira

================================================================================

Dr Cassiano R E de Oliveira c.oliveira@ic.ac.uk (bitnet)
 cassiano@julia.me.ic.ac.uk (internet)

Energy Systems Section,
Mechanical Engineering Department,
Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine
Exhibition Road
London SW7 2BX

Tel: +44 171 594 7146 Fax: +44 171 823 8845

===============================================================================
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: zrauk01@decap2.zdv.uni-tuebingen.de (Uwe Koch)

In comp.parallel.pvm you write:

>Dear Colleague,
>In order to improve PVM we are trying to understand how
>people are using the system. Your feedback is important.
>Could you take a moment to answer three questions.

> Are you currently using PVM?
Yes.
> What are your application(s)?
Monte Carlo Simulation in Astrophysics (X-Ray Emission of Neutron Star)
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
Cray C94, Convex C3860, HP 705 (up to 10)
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
great tool! Keep up with it! It would be great, if the round trip time of
a message on clusters (without shared memory support) could be less than
the current app. 10 ms) and shared memory support could be built into the
versions vor Convex C series and Cray C90 series.
>Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

>Your help is much appreciated.

>Best wishes,
>The PVM Project Team

Same for you!
Chears,

Uwe Koch, Computer Center, Unversity of Tuebingen, Germany
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Bernd.Daene@TheoInf.TU-Ilmenau.DE (Bernd Daene)

> Are you using PVM today?
YES

> What are your application(s)?
education in parallel programming, therefore mostly demo programs for
communication strategies, not really requiring much processing power

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
16, all SUN4

Comment:
there is some trouble if one machine goes down during the session,
very confusing to unexprienced users.

Best wishes
Bernd Daene

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Erik Reinhard <erik@duticg.twi.tudelft.nl>

Dear colleague,

In response to you asking for feedback on the use of PVM,
I can tell you that:

- I'm currently using PVM for ray tracing applications
- I'm using a mixture of HP 300 and HP 700 machines (4 total),
 later maybe also a Parsytec running Parix

I think this is what you were asking for. Best regards. Erik.
--

____________________________________________________

Erik Reinhard erik@duticg.twi.tudelft.nl
 http://dutidi.twi.tudelft.nl/~erik/erik.html
____________________________________________________

 I think, therefore I am sorry.
____________________________________________________

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Lencse Gabor <lencse@sch.bme.hu>

>Are you using PVM today?
Yes, I will use it, I've just installed it.

>What are your application(s)?
First I just run some test programs, and later maybe I'll use it for my
Ph.D work.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
I installed it to an ALPHA, 3 RS6K, and a cluster of RS6K machines. I
plan to use it on an Indigo and a CONVEX machine too. (Maybe on Intel 486
under linux, too, if it'll be possible)

Sincerely,
Gabor Lencse

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Monica Sweat <monica@cis.ufl.edu>

> Dear Colleague,
> In order to improve PVM we are trying to understand how
> people are using the system. Your feedback is important.
> Could you take a moment to answer three questions.
>
> Are you using PVM today?

yes.

> What are your application(s)?

distributed C++ image processing library

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Sun 4 workstations, Linux box - 486/66/PCI

thanks
monica
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Martin Ruppert <ruppert@ira.uka.de>

Dear PVM Project Team,

I used PVM in my master's thesis (Diplomarbeit).

Its title was "Modelling Agents in a Destributed Robot System". My
master's thesis is a part of a project called KAMARA (KAMRO's
Multi-Agent Robot Control Architecture). KAMRO means the Mobile Robot
of Karlsruhe.

I used a network of about ten Sun workstations (SPARCstation 10 and
SPARCstation 20). The operating system was Solaris 1.1.1.

During my work I had the following problem, which is still not solved
sufficiently. My .cshrc starts with:

date
echo ">>> executing .cshrc ..."

On one hand these lines in my .cshrc are used by parts of my PVM
application which are implemented by other colleagues. On the other
hand the PVM deamon started on every part of the virtual machine has a
problem with these lines.

Do you have any idea how to solve my problem whithout changing the
foreign code of my colleagues? Can you perhaps solve the problem in a
later version of PVM?

Best wishes,

Martin Ruppert

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Alexander Schliep <schliep@exp-math.uni-essen.de>

Alexander Schliep Tel. +49-201-32064-62 (work)
Institut fuer Experimentelle Mathematik Tel. +49-231-143083 (home)
Universitaet-Gesamthochschule Essen FAX: +49-201-32064-25
Ellernstrasse 29 schliep@exp-math.uni-essen.de
45326 Essen, Germany

On Fri, 6 Jan 1995 pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu wrote:

> Dear Colleague,
> In order to improve PVM we are trying to understand how
> people are using the system. Your feedback is important.
> Could you take a moment to answer three questions.
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Yes.

> What are your application(s)?
>

Linear Algebra over finite fields. Applications in Representation
Theory of finite groups.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>

IBM RS/6000 (various workstations), IBM SP/1 with 8 nodes.

> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.

No comments at this point in time.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: merazzi@imacsg1.epfl.ch (S. Merazzi)

Sir, Madam,

This in reply to your request concerning the use of PVM at our group:

Are you using PVM today?
------------------------
Yes, we do.

What are your application(s)?
-----------------------------

Computer simulations by means of finite element/finite volume methods
on parallel computers (T3D/SP2/Paragon/Cenju3).

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
----------------------------------------------------------

We use PVM in two ways:

1) To distribute data in a Master-Slave environment. The master program
 runs on a front end to a parallel computer. The slaves are
 distributed on the processors of the parallel computer (SPMD
 programming model). We do not run this programming model in a
 heterogeneous network, i.e. it runs exclusively on T3D/SP2/Paragon.

2) As a communication instrument for a distributed data manager
 (Client-Server concept).

Thus, we use mostly CRAY-YMP's, Silicon Graphics and SUN's as server
platforms. The parallel computers are T3D, SP2 and Paragon.

Improvements
------------

One can of course always imagine all kinds of improvements. In what
follows I start from the idea that the functionality of PVM is not
modified. Improvements then mostly relate to speed:

1) We notice slow data transfer rates and high start-up (spawn) times
 on the CRAY-YMP/T3D environment. Remedy: ?

2) The XDR data conversion is very slow, especially when working with
 vector computers. Remedy: We have our own optimized tools and we
 run PVM in RAW mode with byte vectors.

3) Communication via daemons is slow (but very convenient!). I
 unfortunately do not know enough of operating systems to imagine how
 it could be improved while maintaining the concept.

I personally do not like the way the daemon has to be started and
managed (and killed here and there). I would appreciate if the PVM
daemon could somehow better be integrated in the operating system.

I am very much impressed by the quality of this public domain
program and the way it is distributed and installed. Thank you and the
PVM team!

I hope that these informations are of some use to you and I remain

Yours sincerely,

Silvio Merazzi
Ecole polyechnique federale de Lausanne
Departement de genie civil
CH-1015 Lausanne
Suisse

tel: 041 21 6932455
mail: merazzi@pascal.epfl.ch

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Bruno.AGNERAY@ifp.fr (Bruno Agneray)

Q.1 Are you currently using PVM ?
A.1 Yes.

Q.2 What are your application(s) ?
A.2 I am now working on the parallelization of a reflection tomography (or
 travel time inversion). It is a classical technique to obtain velocity and
 reflector information from seismic sections. The great advantage of
 raytracing, when compared for example with finite difference algorithms, is
 that it requests less computing time and memory. Furthermore, the
 parallelization of raytracing is relativly easy since a lot of computations
 can be executed separetly (one computation for one source and one
 reflector).

 The particulars points of this application are :
 * efficient even on loaded network (low unix priority)
 * low impact on interactive work during working hours (low unix priority)
 * dynamically configurable (able to handle addition or deletion of hosts
 during computation (use of pvm_notify and other configuration fonction)
 * fault tolerant (use of pvm_notify and other configuration fonction)
 * strategy of load balancing to overcome that an unique task on a crowded
 machine might remain during hours.

Q.3 How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM ?
A.3 Heterogeneous network of workstations :
 4 SUN SOLARIS
 1 SUN 2 processors SOLARIS.
 2 SGI OS 5.2
 1 SGI 2 processors OS 5.2.
 1 SGI OS 6.0

 Soon :
 RS/6000
 loosely coupled MPP (IBM SP2)

Comments :
 - pvm_notify must be apply to all task (created or to be created).
 It will be interresting to have one pvm_notify for global parallel virtual
 machine or a new flag in pvm_spawn to explicitly ask the notification.
 - In the User's Guide and Tutorial for Networked Parallel Computing, the
 use of struct pvmhostinfo array is not complete at allocation level in that
 way that it is not says if we can desallocate it.

Best wishes,

 FFFFFFF ! Bruno AGNERAY
 FFFFFFFFF !
 FFFF ! Computer Science and
IIIIFFFFFFFFPPPPPPPPP ! Applied Mathematics Dept.
IIIIFFFFFFFFPPPPPPPPPPP !
 FFFF PPPP ! Email: Bruno.Agneray@ifp.fr
IIII FFFF PPPPPPPPPPP ! Tel: +(33) 1-47.52.64.77
IIII FFFF PPPPPPPPP ! Fax: +(33) 1-47.52.70.22
IIII FFFF PPPP
IIII FFFF PPPP INSTITUT 1-4 Av Bois-Preau - BP 311
IIII FFFF PPPP FRANCAIS F-92506 RUEIL-MALMAISON
IIII FFFF PPPP DU PETROLE FRANCE
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <S090@C53000.PETROBRAS.ANRJ.BR>

1 - Yes, we are using PVM today
2 - Seismic Migration
3 - We have 50 IBM RS/6000 (several models)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <rjanssen@prl.philips.nl>

Dear PVM people,

Yes, we're using PVM.

We use it for running 3d FE Electromagnetics Simulations
in parallel.

On 4 to 8 HP9000/735-755 workstations in an fddi network.

Best regards,

Rick Janssen

--
	Janssen, dr. H.H.J.M

	Philips Research Laboratories -- Building WL p 124
	Prof. Holstlaan 4
	5656 AA Eindhoven
	The Netherlands

	Phone: +31-40-743656
	E-mail: rjanssen@prl.philips.nl
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Randy Gressang" <Randy_Gressang@ccmail.sb.grci.com>

 PVM Survey Feedback

 1.Are you using PVM today? Currently not using PVM. Have two networks
 which are candidates for PVM. However, one of the networks has very
 few UNIX machines on it, and they function as servers. Most machines
 on the network are 486 class PCs operating under DOS; PVM didn't seem
 like a good fit. Second network consists of UNIX machines, however it
 is heavily loaded with applications jobs, and have been unable to
 convince the organization owning that network that using PVM and
 converting some of their spaghetti code applications to parallel
 versions runing under PVM will rationalize network use and free it up.

 2.What are your application(s)? The principal application is SAR and
 ISAR radar image processing and associated automatic target
 recognition algorithms. Other applications involve neural net "mining"
 of large distributed data bases.

 3.How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM? To date
 the only machine used has been a single Sun workstation; the problem
 with using PVM is that it operates under UNIX and most networked
 computers at this company are PCs operating under DOS, so PVM's full
 potential cannot be exploited. To exploit PVM's full potential in this
 commercial environment would require a DOS based version running on a
 PC. Price and performance of a DOS based PC is such that this
 commercial LANs is populated with those type machines, and they meet
 the bulk of requirements. Adding a software capability like PVM to the
 LAN can be sold to management; replacing most of the machines with
 UNIX workstations to achieve the PVM capability is perceived by
 management as too expensive for an ill-defined benefit.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: anderson@niwot.scd.ucar.EDU (Dan Anderson)
>
> Are you using PVM today?

YES

>
> What are your application(s)?

Mainly CFD SPMD codes , also a PVM distributed loosely coupled
climate, ocean, land, sea ice and upper atmospheric model.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

RS6Ks, YMPs, T3D , Suns for checkout
>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
>
I have the most problems with large records on AIX

--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Dan Anderson National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)
anderson@ncar.ucar.edu P.O. Box 3000
rasputin@ncar.ucar.edu Boulder, CO 80307 USA
(303) 497-1280 (303) 497-1814 (Fax)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: sjc@mcs.kent.edu (Steve Chapin)

Are you using PVM today?

 Yes.

What are your application(s)?

 I use PVM mainly for educational purposes. I use it in both our
 Advanced OS and Distributed OS courses to demonstrate distributed
 computation in a message-passing environment.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

 I have used PVM with a network of ~20 SPARC workstations.

sc
--

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: marie@odie.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp (Marie Oshima)

Dear The PVM Project Team,

I am sorry for a bit belated reply.
My name is Marie Oshima working at Institute of Industrial Science (I.I.S),
The University of Tokyo. Mr. Matsuda, who is graduate student working
for our research group has just started to learn PVM.

Here are answers to your question.

1. I am using PVM ver. 3.3.5.

2. I am working on computational analyses of an incompressible flow using
 a finite element method. I have developed an application of a
 substructure method to a Pressure Poisson equation. Since the
 substructure method divides an analysis domain to several sub-domains,
 I am implementing this method using PVM to exchange the information
 on shared domain.

3. I installed PVM on the following machines:
 SUN SPARC 10 with Solalis 2.3 ( 2 machines)
 INDY Silicon Graphics ( 1 machine)
 HP 9000/720( 1 machine)
 CRAY EL 94( 1 machine)

I have just started to use it, but I am very impressed with all the work
that you put together.
The materials such as PVM manual and quick reference are quite useful and
practical. I can learn a lot studying the examples.

I have two question:

1. When I try to add CRAY(host name:cognac) from another machine,
 for example, from SUN, I will get the following message.

pvm> add cognac
0 successful
 HOST DT ID
 cognac Error 1

But if I try to add other machines from CRAY, it works. I wonder why I
can not do it from other machines.

2. I can not compile and link master1.f and slave1.f on HP using aimk.
 We use HP-UX FORTRAN/9000 and OS 6.0.2.

Thank you very much for your help.

Sincerely yours,

Marie Oshima
marie@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: vanni@Kirk.Physiology.RWTH-Aachen.DE (Ralf Vandenhouten)

Are you using PVM today?
Yes, at least once a week.

What are your application(s)?
3D Visualization, Simulation

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
~10 machines, SUN Sparc 10, Sparc IPC, SGI Indy, PCs

____________________________________________________________________________
 __
 \ \ Ralf Vandenhouten
 \ \ Dept. of Physiology, RWTH Aachen
 | \ Pauwelsstr. 30
 | \ D-52057 Aachen
 | \ Phone: +49-241-8088826 and 8088804
 _____|,,,|_\_ FAX: +49-241-8888434
 |'''| / email: vanni@physiology.rwth-aachen.de
 | /
 | / private:
 | / Scherberger Str. 19
 / / D-52146 Wuerselen
 /__/ Phone: +49-2405-87754

 "There are no answers,
 only cross references."
 (see also [42])
____________________________________________________________________________
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: <alenia@orchid.cdi.cdc.com>

Dear Colleague,
i am very interesting to the PVM system. I knew it 2 years ago in a comparison
report between two environments for Parallel Programming: PVM and LINDA.

But i began to use PVM few months ago. My principal applications are FORTRAN
programs with a good level of vectorization but unfortunaly with a low level of
parallelism. I use PVM 3.3.5 under HENCE2.0 on a IBM RS6K Mod. 53H AIX 3.2.3
but i would like to use it in a multivendor environment composed by:

 one CDC ETA10Q vector machine undex Unix SYSV
 one CDC MIPS 4680 EP/IX
 one IBM RS6K Mod. 990 AIX 3.2.5
 two IBM RS6K Mod. 590 AIX 3.2.5
 two IBM RS6K Mod. 560 AIX 3.2.5
 one SGI INDIGO IRIX 4.0.5F
 a lot of Sparc Stations under Sun O.S. and Solaris.

Thank you from any future suggest you would send to me.

						Best Regards

						Carlo Corridore
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: math16@Math01.math.ac.cn (Institute of Math)

answer

Dear Colleague,
Sorry, I answer your questions very late. The fellowing is my answer:

Are you using PVM today?
I am using PVM 3.3.6.

What are your application(s)?
Our applications are the Scientific Computing and Visualzation ,and the project
"Scalable Parallel Clusters Systems".

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
We have used six machines such as SunSparcstation 2 ,SunSparcstation 10,SGI withPVM.

Best wishes for the PVM Project Team!

Wu Xingfu

email address: math16@math01.math.ac.cn

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: feng@math03.math.ac.cn (Feng lie)

Dear Colleague,
Sorry, I answer your questions very late. The fellowing is my answer:

Are you using PVM today?
I am using PVM 3.3.6.

What are your application(s)?
Our applications are the Scientific Computing and Visualzation ,and the project
"Scalable Parallel Clusters Systems".

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
We have used six machines such as SunSparcstation 2 ,SunSparcstation 10,SGI withPVM.

Best wishes for the PVM Project Team!

Wu Xingfu

email address: math16@math01.math.ac.cn

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: jcl@batis.cnrs-mrs.fr

 Hi,
I work in France in a observatory of the CNRS (Centre Nationnal de Recherche
Scientique/Nationnal Center of Scientific Research).
We use PVM (version 3.3.4/5/6/7). Our applications are based on simulations
N-Body. We have 2 Sparc Stations 10 bi processor (PVM_ARCH=SUNMP) and
1 Sparc Station 5 (PVM_ARCH=SUN4SOL2). I was in relation with 'manchek'
because I had a problem with PVM under solaris. The problem may be solved
in PVM 3.3.7. Thanks you very much for you help.

 I would like receive mail when there is a modification in PVM. Thank you.

 bye, JCL.

PS : excuse me for my bad english....

------------------------------------------------------------------------
 _/_/_/_/_/ _/_/_/_/_/ _/ Jean-Charles LAMBERT
 _/ _/ _/ OBSERVATOIRE DE MARSEILLE
 _/ _/ _/ 2,place le Verrier
 _/ _/ _/ 13248 MARSEILLE CEDEX 4 FRANCE
 _/ _/ _/ Tel : 91 95 90 88
_/_/_/ _/ _/_/_/_/_/ _/ _/_/_/_/_/ Fax : 91 62 11 90
 E-mail : jcl@batis.cnrs-mrs.fr
------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Christophe Laurent <Christophe.Laurent@imag.fr>
>
> Are you using PVM today?
>
yes
> What are your application(s)?
>
my reseach project is the parallel implementations of the 3D reconstruction
 methods for the X-Rays cone-beam Tomography. I have implemented a Feldkamp
method and an ART method.
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
My target computers are a workstations network and a Cray T3D with PVM
I work on an Intel Paragon but not with PVM
My future implementations will be developed on an IBM SP1 and on a farm
of processors with an ATM network
______________________________________________________________________________
Christophe LAURENT 			Tel:(33) 76 54 94 84
Laboratoire TIMC-IMAG 	Fax:(33) 76 54 14 14
Equipe InfoDis,			E-mail: claurent@orage.imag.fr
Institut Albert Bonniot, Faculte de medecine de Grenoble, Domaine de la Merci,
38706 La Tronche cedex, France
______________________________________________________________________________

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "OAC Advanced Scientific Computing (D. M. Frederick)" <asc@uci.edu>

> Dear Colleague,
> In order to improve PVM we are trying to understand how
> people are using the system. Your feedback is important.
> Could you take a moment to answer three questions.
>
> Are you using PVM today?

Yes
>
> What are your application(s)?
We have one user who has written a molecular dynamics program for
calculating prpoerties of small molecular clusters.
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
We are currently running PVM on a Convex Metacluster, consisting of a
Convex C210 and 4 HP 735s.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: musashi@netcom.com (Irving Moy)
>
> Are you using PVM today?
Not yet due to other projects but I plan to still use PVM.
Just printed out the Postscript docs today...

> What are your application(s)?
Writing an app that will run other apps on multiple machines
in a CGI production environment.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
Plan to use it on a network of about 30 SGI workstations.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: kishi@taos.arc.unm.edu (Tryon C. Mitchell)

Hey, I've toyed with the PVM deal..but, I can't say I'm some wonder programmer
in code that is specific for it. It would be kewl if you folks offered
like a REAL solid ongoing class/classes in it..not just some intro.

But, I certainly appreciate what you guys have already done..so keep it up.
T
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Greg Whitlock <greg@pollux.cs.uga.edu>

> Are you using PVM today?

Yes [although not me personally]

We have several graduate students here in the computer science department
using PVM. Some are even incorporating PVM results into their thesis.

> What are your application(s)?

By this do you mean our usage of PVM? Mostly instructional and research.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

Currently only four machines. They are a SUN 670MP, two SUN 4/280's,
and one SUN 4/110.

Sorry for the delay in answering but it's been amazingly busy lately.

-greg
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: abierman@cc.brynmawr.edu (Amy S. Biermann)
>
>Are you using PVM today?
This very day, no. This term, yes.

>What are your application(s)?
Experimentations in parallelizing game trees.

>How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
Sun Sparc Stations

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Amy Biermann -- C-1202 Bryn Mawr College -- Bryn Mawr, PA 19010
 (610) 526-5579 -- abierman@cc.brynmawr.edu

 "Sending e-mail is simply sending garbage at the speed of light."
 -- Deborah Daw
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Ed Williams <ewilliam@afit.af.mil>
>
> Are you using PVM today?
Yes.

>
> What are your application(s)?
Artificial Intelligence -- we are building an inference engine utilizing
multiple algorithms cooperatively, connected with PVM.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
We have access to around 30 or 40 Sparc20s and 10 Sparc2s; our
application currently only requires up to 10 systems at a time.

>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
An option in the choice of which machines to spawn processes would be
nice -- currently it is either pick your own or just step through the
list; it would be nice to be able to let the processes be spawned based
on the actual processor load, based on the type of machine (given an
indicator of the magnitude of the task), etc. Currently I have
implemented a kludge to do the load-based assignment in my app, but it
would be nice to have it in PVM.

I have also had problems with the PVM daemon overrunning its buffer in
situations when I was passing large amounts of data -- I switch to
routeDirect to solve the problem, but the daemon shouldn't die like that
-- either it should just stop receiving (back up the sender), let them
fall on the floor (let the error/resend code handle them) or dynamically
expand its buffer to handle the load. My app was sending on the order of
200,000 34-byte packets in the space of a few minutes -- the slave daemon
(on the machine with the app that was generating the packets) was the one
that died. Once I switched to RouteDirect, the sending app maintains a
constant 32k send buffer, and the receiving app continuously has a 29-30k
receive buffer!

> Please email the information to pvm-survey@cs.utk.edu.
>
> Your help is much appreciated.
Thanks for the great system!

-.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.. . -. -.... --.. --. -. -.... --.. --. .-.-. -.-
Ed Williams (N6ZG) | PhD Student, Artificial Intelligence
ewilliam@afit.af.mil | (but if I find the REAL thing, I'll take it too!)
================================================================================
The Air Force doesn't WANT to know what I think .....

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Thanee Dechsakulthorn <td@cacs.usl.edu>

> Are you using PVM today?
>
Yes.

> What are your application(s)?
>
Compute integration of some functions.

> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
>
16 Sun Sparcstation-2's.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: deluca@aer.com (Cecelia DeLuca)

Sorry, I hardly ever check this account. Hope this
is still useful.

Are you using PVM today? No.

What are your application(s)? I used PVM v3.3 to parallelize
a 2-D atmospheric chemistry model last summer. The company
I was working for was trying to figure out whether to use
PVM or Linda. In the full implementation, PVM was a little
faster but they liked Linda better because it was easier to code.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
We were running on a Sun MP and around 8 Sun 4's.

Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
The single biggest hassle with PVM was not being able to send
and receive common blocks in Fortran. It would be nice for the
speed-rates in the hosts file to work, too. Otherwise, I liked
PVM because commands were very explicit, it was more flexible and
had fewer cute metaphors than Linda, and the documentation
was outstanding.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Jose' M. Piquer" <jose.piquer@dcc.uchile.cl>

Are you using PVM today?
Yes

What are your application(s)?
I am working on a Distributed Lisp runtime, using a shared object space.
The communication platform is based on PVM. I am also working on a PVM
modification to support ordered messages between groups, using a relaxed
causality order.

How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
I am running it on Sun workstations and Linux (in my own notebook :-).

Regards,
	Jose' Piquer (jpiquer@dcc.uchile.cl)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: nico@mikonos.caspur.it (NICO SANNA)
>
> Are you using PVM today?
 YES.
>
> What are your application(s)?
 Mainly scientific applications but some industrial codes are going to be ported
 in paralle using PVM. We have several code running using PVM in the areas of
 Computational chemistry, Fluidodynamics, Mathematics and Engineering.
 We are strongly interested in using PVM to develop and port future scientific
 codes in parallel.
>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?
 About 25 machines including 8 nodes SP2, RS6Ks, ALPHAs & SUNs.
 (More details are available if needed...).
>
> Any comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
 We observe a strong request from the users to put their PVM codes (or vendor
 PVM codes) in PRODUCTION, that is, to have a queuing system capable of manage
 parallel jobs in a heterogeneous (both SW and HW) environment.
 While several queuing systems support PVM jobs, in my opinion, none of them
 fully integrate its capabilities and the management of parallel and serial
 jobs in a multiarchitecture computing system seems to be still a matter of
 study or knoledge of a specific site with specific application.
 May be an improvement of the PVM tool toward the parallel jobs management
 to give a fault-tollerant solution with one or more queueing system, could
 increase its acceptance as 'de-facto standard' message passing tool.

Nico Sanna
CASPUR c/o University of Rome "La Sapienza"
P.le A. Moro,5
00185 ROME (ITALY)
Tel. +39-6-49913539
Fax +39-6-49913837
E-mail sanna@caspur.it

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: D Jayasimha <jayasim@cis.ohio-state.edu>

> What are your application(s)?

Jet Noise Reduction Computations.

>
> How many and what kind of machines have you used with PVM?

LACE (cluster of IBM RS6K workstations), IBM SP-2, Cray T3D.

D. N. Jayasimha
395 Dreese Lab
The Ohio State University
2015, Neil Ave.
Columbus, OH 43210.

jayasim@cis.ohio-state.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Thomas Bahls <bahls@rz.uni-greifswald.de>

Hello all PVM maintainers out there.

This is some kind of (positive) feedback. I guess you are interested in ?

I use PVM regularly since version 2.4. So I don't want to express my best
impressions on the software itself. There's no doubt about that.
What's more, I am enthusiastic about the documents available. The PVM User's
Guide was a very useful and beneficial paper in my daily work by now. But a
few weeks ago I was told of the new PVM Book available on netlib.
I skimmed through it at Easter.
In my eyes, it's a great guide not only for new PVM users but also for
people who want to get familiar with parallelism. The PVM Book is a good
idea to get a first impression of programming schemes, pitfalls and things
to care of. The author's style, in particular, is really excellent. Compared
with other literature especially in German, the PVM Book is very easy to
understand and offers a quick benefit for practical problems. Its structure
and logic offers a fast access if special information is required.

I don't know who is the extremely talented one writing PVM guides and
manuals. But I want to thank her or him at this point. Because I know lots
of books which are so complicated to use (style, structure, language), I
want you to go on publishing such good work.

Best regards,
Thomas.

--
Use PGP encryption to protect email with private or confidential contents
from disclosure ! To get my PGP public key, mail to tfb574@hp1.uni-rostock.de
You will get an automatically replied response.
 ,,,
 (o o)
+-----------------------------oOO--( )--OOo-----------------------------+
| |
| Thomas Bahls, Dept. of CS, University of Rostock, Germany |
| |
| private phone: +49 381 4902129, answering machine: +49 3834 501469 |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Internet (e-mail): |
| tfb574@cks1.rz.uni-rostock.de (most frequently read) |
| bahls@rz.uni-greifswald.de (no automatic reply at all) |
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