Passion: Optimized I/O for parallel applications

Parallel computers with peak performance of more than 100 Gflops/second are already available to solve a variety of problems in a range of disciplines. However, the input/output performance of these machines is a poor reflection of their true computational power. To improve the I/O performance of parallel programs with distributed multidimensional arrays, we have developed a software library called Passion (Parallel, Scalable Software for Input/Output). Passion's routines are designed to read or write either entire distributed arrays or sections of such arrays. Passion also frees the programmer from many of the tedious tasks associated with performing I/O in parallel programs and has a high-level interface that makes it easy to specify the required I/O. We have implemented Passion on Intel's Paragon, Touchstone Delta, and iPSC/860 systems, and on the IBM SP system. We have also made it publicly available through the World Wide Web (http://www.cat.syr.edu/passion. html). We are in the process of porting the library to other machines and extending its functionality.