Using MPI with Epiphany?

[Tylerlee12]

Hi guys,

I was wondering, is it possible to use MPI with the Epiphany processors? We have set up a Beowulf cluster to connect 4 Parallella boards, and ran programs using all 4 of their ARM processors collectively. However, in order to do this you need to run the program through the 'mpicc' compiler; and in order to run programs I know you need to use the 'e-gcc' compiler. Anyone have any insight as to how we could do this? Also, on a side note, is C++ supported on the Epiphany compiler?

[aolofsson]

You would need to do "heterogeneous programming". As you said, you can use MPI to distribute work between the different Parallella boards. Distributing work to the Epiphany cores would currently need to be done using the basic ehal("e-gcc" interface or with OpenCL. This is similar to what is normally done for clusters with a mix of CPUs and GPUs. C++ is supported, but you have to be VERY careful with the features you use in order to keep the code size below 32KB.
Andreas

[Tylerlee12]