From: chk@rice.edu (Charles Koelbel)
Subject: High Performance Fortran - Request for Comments
Originator: chk@erato.cs.rice.edu
Keywords: High Performance Fortran
Reply-To: chk@rice.edu (Charles Koelbel)
Organization: Rice University
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 20:26:52 GMT



REQUEST FOR PUBLIC COMMENT ON HIGH PERFORMANCE FORTRAN

To: The High Performance Computing Community

Invitation:

The High Performance Fortran Forum (HPFF), with participation from over 40 
organizations, has been meeting for the last ten months to discuss and 
define a set of extensions to Fortran called High Performance Fortran 
(HPF). Our goal is to address the problems of writing data parallel 
programs for architectures where the distribution of data impacts 
performance. While we hope that the HPF extensions become widely available, 
HPFF is not sanctioned or supported by any official standards organization. 
At this time, HPFF invites general public review comments on the initial 
version of the language draft. 

The HPF language specification, version 0.4, is now available. This 
document contains all the technical features proposed for the language. We 
plan that version 1.0 of the HPF document will be available after mid 
December. This version will be primarily an editorial improvement of 
version 0.4, based on suggestions from public comment. 

HPFF invites comments on the technical content of HPF, as well as on the 
editorial presentation in the document. We ask that editorial comments on 
version 0.4 be submitted before December 5 to allow incorporation into 
version 1.0. After that, please base comments on form on version 1.0 if 
possible. Comments on technical content may pertain to either version. 


How to Get the Documents:

Electronic copies of the HPF language specification are available from 
numerous sources. 

    Anonymous FTP sources:      Directory:
    titan.cs.rice.edu           public/HPFF/draft
    think.com                   public/HPFF
    ftp.gmd.de                  hpf-europe
    theory.tc.cornell.edu       pub
    minerva.npac.syr.edu        public

    Email sources:              First line of message:
    netlib@research.att.com     send hpf-vxx.ps from hpff
    netlib@ornl.gov             send hpf-vxx.ps from hpf
    softlib@cs.rice.edu         send hpf-vxx.ps    

The following formats are available (xx will be 04 or 10, depending on 
version). Note that not all formats are available from all sources. 
    hpf-vxx.dvi                 DVI file
    hpf-vxx.ps                  Postscript
    hpf-vxx.ps.Z                Compressed Postscript
    hpf-vxx.tar                 Tar file of LaTeX version
    hpf-vxx.tar.Z               Compressed tar file

For more detailed instructions, send email to hpff-info@cs.rice.edu. This 
will return a message with expanded detail about accessing the above 
document sources, as well as other information about HPFF. 

We strongly encourage reviewers to obtain an electronic copy of the 
document. However, if electronic access is impossible the draft is also 
available in hard copy form as CRPC Technical Report #92225. This report is 
available for $50 (copying/handling fee) from: 

    Theresa Chatman
    CITI/CRPC, Box 1892
    Rice University
    Houston, TX 77251

Make checks payable to Rice University. This document will be sent surface 
mail unless additional airmail postage is included in the payment. 


How to Submit Comments:

HPFF encourages reviewers to submit comments as soon as possible, with a 
deadline of February 15 for consideration. Please do not submit comments 
for any version of the draft earlier than the 0.4 version. 

Please send comments by email to hpff-comments@cs.rice.edu. To facilitate 
the processing of comments we request that separate comment messages be 
submitted for each chapter of the document and that the chapter be clearly 
identified in the "Subject:" line of the message. Comments about general 
overall impressions of the HPF document should be labeled as Chapter 1. All 
comments on the language specification become the property of Rice 
University. 

If email access is impossible for comment responses, hard copy may be sent 
to 

    HPF Comments
    c/o Theresa Chatman
    CITI/CRPC, Box 1892
    Rice University
    Houston, TX 77251

HPFF plans to process the feedback received at a meeting in March. Best 
efforts will be made to reply to comments submitted. 


Sincerely,


Charles Koelbel
Rice University
HPFF Executive Director





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