PQE HPF-a library for exploiting the capabilities of a PQE-1 heterogeneous parallel architecture

Heterogeneous computing is a special form of parallel and distributed computing where computations are performed using a single autonomous computer operating in both SIMD and MIMD modes, or using a number of connected autonomous computers. In multimode system heterogeneous computing, tasks can be executed in both SIMD and MIMD simultaneously. In this paper, we present PQE HPF, a High Performance Fortran (HPF) based programming library which allows one to exploit the MIMD and SIMD capabilities offered by PQE-1, a multimode parallel architecture. Two different implementations of a well-known application, using HPF and PQE HPF respectively, were used to evaluate the overheads introduced over the machine´s runtime system. Preliminary tests, conducted by running the case study application on the first PQE-1 prototype, show good results and encourage us to dedicate more effort to implement real production parallel codes on a similar architecture