Teaching Parallel and Distributed Computing Concepts Using OpenMPI and Java

Abstract

The ACM/IEEE CS 2013 curriculum recommendations state that every undergraduate CS major should learn about parallel and distributed computing (PDC). One way to accomplish this is to teach students about the Message Passing Interface (MPI), a platform that is commonly used on modern supercomputers and Beowulf clusters, but can also be used on a Network of Workstations (NoW), or a multicore laptop or desktop. MPI incorporates many PDC concepts and can serve as a platform for hands-on learning activities in which students must apply those concepts. The MPI standard defines language bindings for Fortran and C/C++, but many university instructors lack expertise in these languages, preventing them from using MPI in their courses. OpenMPI is a free implementation of the MPI standard that also provides Java bindings for MPI. This paper describes how to install OpenMPI with these Java bindings; to illustrate the use of these bindings, the paper also presents several patternlets-minimalist example programs-that show how to implement PDC design patterns using OpenMPI and Java. This provides a new means of introducing students to PDC concepts.