Process model and groups

Process Model and Groups

• Fundamental computational unit is the process. Each process has:
  • an independent thread of control,
  • a separate address space
• MPI processes execute in MIMD style, but:
  • No mechanism for loading code onto processors, or assigning processes to processors
  • No mechanism for creating or destroying processes
• MPI supports dynamic process groups.
  • Process groups can be created and destroyed
  • Membership is static
  • Groups may overlap
• No explicit support for multithreading, but MPI is designed to be thread-safe.