Additional MPI features
Derived Data Types
Unlike PVM the MPI libraries allow the programmer to send messages of different data types.
- The idea of derived MPI datatypes is to provide a portable and efficient way of communicating non-contiguous and/or mixed types in a message.
Contexts in MPI
Contexts only exist in MPI and there is no analogy in PVM.
- A context is a property of communicators that allows partitioning of the communication space.
- Contexts are not explicit MPI objects; they appear only as part of the realization of communicators.
- A context is essentially a system-managed tag needed to make a communicator safe for point-to-point and collective communication.
- A message sent in one context cannot be received in another context.
Submitted by Mark Johnston,
last updated on 10 December 1994.