Intel® MPI Library 4.1

Deliver Flexible, Efficient, and Scalable Cluster Messaging

Intel® MPI Library 4.1 focuses on making applications perform better on Intel® architecture-based clusters—implementing the high performance Message Passing Interface Version 2.2 specification on multiple fabrics. It enables you to quickly deliver maximum end user performance even if you change or upgrade to new interconnects, without requiring changes to the software or operating environment.

Use this high performance MPI message library to develop applications that can run on multiple cluster interconnects chosen by the user at runtime. Benefit from a free runtime environment kit for products developed with Intel® MPI library. Get excellent performance for enterprise, divisional, departmental, workgroup, and personal High Performance Computing.


Intel® MPI Library (Intel® MPI) provides reduced MPI latency which can result in faster throughput.
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Top Features

  • Scalability Up To 120K Processes
  • Industry Leading Latency Performance
  • Interconnect Independence & Flexible Runtime Fabric Selection

Quotes

“Fast and accurate state of the art general purpose CFD solvers is the focus at S & I Engineering Solutions Pvt, Ltd. Scalability and efficiency are key to us when it comes to our choice and use of MPI Libraries. The Intel® MPI Library has enabled us to scale to over 10k cores with high efficiency and performance.”
Nikhil Vijay Shende, Director,
S & I Engineering Solutions, Pvt. Ltd.

Scalability

  • Scaling up to 120k Processes
  • Low overhead allows random access to portions of a trace, making it suitable for analyzing large amounts of performance data.
  • Thread safety allows you to trace multithreaded MPI applications for event-based tracing as well as non-MPI threaded applications.
  • Improved start scalability through the mpiexec.hydra process manager

Industry Leading MPI Library
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Industry Leading MPI Library
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Performance

  • Low latency MPI implementation up to x.x as fast as alternative MPI libraries
  • Deploy optimized shared memory dynamic connection mode for large SMP nodes
  • Increase performance with improved DAPL and OFA fabric support
  • Accelerate your applications using the enhanced tuning utility for MPI

What’s New

FeatureBenefit
Increased MPI Scalability

Intel® MPI Library 4.1 now scales up to 120K processes and Intel® Trace Analyzer and Collector now scales up to 6K processes to support application development and deployment for continued capacity growth of HPC systems.
MPI Standards Support & Reliability

Intel® MPI Library 4.1 now supports the MPI standard version 2.2. Berkeley Labs Checkpoint Restart (BLCR) support has been implemented to improve reliability of long running cluster based applications in case of failure recovery, scheduling, and process migration.
Latest Processor Support
Haswell, Ivy Bridge, Intel® Many Integrated Core Architecture

Intel consistently offers the first set of tools to take advantage of the latest performance enhancements in the newest Intel product, while preserving compatibility with older Intel and compatible processors. New support includes AVX2, TSX, and FMA3.
FeatureBenefit
Increased MPI Scalability

Intel® MPI Library 4.1 now scales up to 120K processes and Intel® Trace Analyzer and Collector now scales up to 6K processes to support application development and deployment for continued capacity growth of HPC systems.
MPI Standards Support & Reliability

Intel® MPI Library 4.1 now supports the MPI standard version 2.2. Berkeley Labs Checkpoint Restart (BLCR) support has been implemented to improve reliability of long running cluster based applications in case of failure recovery, scheduling, and process migration.
Latest Processor Support
Haswell, Ivy Bridge, Intel® Many Integrated Core Architecture

Intel consistently offers the first set of tools to take advantage of the latest performance enhancements in the newest Intel product, while preserving compatibility with older Intel and compatible processors. New support includes AVX2, TSX, and FMA3.

Scalability

Implementing the high performance version 2.2 of the MPI-2 specification on multiple fabrics, Intel® MPI Library 4.1 for Windows* and Linux* focuses on making applications perform better on IA-based clusters. Intel® MPI Library 4.1 enables you to quickly deliver maximum end-user performance, even if you change or upgrade to new interconnects without requiring major modifications to the software or to the operating environment. Intel also provides a free runtime environment kit for products developed with the Intel® MPI library.

Performance

Optimized shared memory path for multicore platforms allows more communication throughput and lower latencies. Native InfiniBand interface (OFED verbs) also provides support for lower latencies. Multi-rail capability for higher bandwidth and increased interprocess communication and Tag Matching Interface (TMI) support for higher performance on Qlogic* PSM and Myricom* MX interconnects.

Intel® MPI Library 4.1 Supports Multiple Hardware Fabrics

Whether you need to run TCP sockets, shared memory, or one of many Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) based interconnects, including InfiniBand*, Intel® MPI Library 4.1 covers all your configurations by providing an accelerated universal, multi-fabric layer for fast interconnects via the Direct Access Programming Library (DAPL*) or the Open Fabrics Association (OFA*) methodology. Develop MPI code independent of the fabric, knowing it will run efficiently on whatever fabric is chosen by the user at runtime.

Additionally, Intel® MPI Library 4.1 provides new levels of performance and flexibility for applications achieved through improved interconnect support for Myrinet* MX and QLogic* PSM interfaces, faster on-node messaging and an application tuning capability that adjusts to the cluster architecture and application structure.

Intel® MPI Library 4.1 dynamically establishes the connection, but only when needed, which reduces the memory footprint. It also automatically chooses the fastest transport available. Memory requirements are reduced by several methods including a two-phase communication buffer enlargement capability which allocates only the memory space actually required.

Purchase Options

Several suites are available combining the tools to build, verify and tune your application. The products covered in this product brief are highlighted in blue. Single or multi-user licenses along with volume, academic, and student discounts are available.


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Technical Specifications

FeatureBenefit
Processor support

Validated for use with multiple generations of Intel® and compatible processors including but not limited to: 2nd Generation Intel® Core™2 processor, Intel® Core™2 processor, Intel® Core™ processor, Intel® Xeon™ processor, and Intel® Xeon Phi™ Coprocessors
Operating systems

Windows* and Linux*
Programming languages

Natively supports C, C++ and Fortran development
System requirements

Please refer to www.intel.com/software/products/systemrequirements/ for details on hardware and software requirements.
Support

A free Runtime Environment Kit is available to run applications that were developed using Intel® MPI Library

All product updates, Intel® Premier Support services, and Intel® Support Forums are included for one year. Intel Premier Support gives you confidential support, technical notes, application notes, and the latest documentation. Join the Intel® Support Forums community to learn, contribute, or just browse! http://software.intel.com/en-us/forums

Try Tools from Intel

Download a free 30-day evaluation from: http://intel.ly/sw-tools-eval. Click on ‘Cluster Tools’ link.

Scalability

Implementing the high performance version 2.2 of the MPI-2 specification on multiple fabrics, Intel® MPI Library 4.1 for Windows* and Linux* focuses on making applications perform better on IA-based clusters. Intel® MPI Library enables you to quickly deliver maximum end-user performance, even if you change or upgrade to new interconnects without requiring major modifications to the software or to the operating environment. Intel also provides a free runtime environment kit for products developed with the Intel® MPI library.

Performance

Optimized shared memory path for multicore platforms allows more communication throughput and lower latencies. Native InfiniBand interface (OFED verbs) also provides support for lower latencies. Multi-rail capability for higher bandwidth and increased interprocess communication and Tag Matching Interface (TMI) support for higher performance on Qlogic* PSM and Myricom* MX interconnects.

Intel® MPI Library 4.1 Supports Multiple Hardware Fabrics

Whether you need to run TCP sockets, shared memory, or one of many Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) based interconnects, including InfiniBand*, Intel® MPI Library 4.1 covers all your configurations by providing an accelerated universal, multi-fabric layer for fast interconnects via the Direct Access Programming Library (DAPL*) or the Open Fabrics Association (OFA*) methodology. Develop MPI code independent of the fabric, knowing it will run efficiently on whatever fabric is chosen by the user at runtime.

Additionally, Intel® MPI Library 4.1 provides new levels of performance and flexibility for applications achieved through improved interconnect support for Myrinet* MX and QLogic* PSM interfaces, faster on-node messaging and an application tuning capability that adjusts to the cluster architecture and application structure.

Intel® MPI Library 4.1 dynamically establishes the connection, but only when needed, which reduces the memory footprint. It also automatically chooses the fastest transport available. Memory requirements are reduced by several methods including a two-phase communication buffer enlargement capability which allocates only the memory space actually required.

Purchase Options

Several suites are available combining the tools to build, verify and tune your application. The products covered in this product brief are highlighted in blue. Single or multi-user licenses along with volume, academic, and student discounts are available.


Click to enlarge

Technical Specifications

FeatureBenefit
Processor support

Validated for use with multiple generations of Intel® and compatible processors including but not limited to: 2nd Generation Intel® Core™2 processor, Intel® Core™2 processor, Intel® Core™ processor, Intel® Xeon™ processor, and Intel® Xeon Phi™ Coprocessors
Operating systems

Windows* and Linux*
Programming languages

Natively supports C, C++ and Fortran development
System requirements

Please refer to www.intel.com/software/products/systemrequirements/ for details on hardware and software requirements.
Support

A free Runtime Environment Kit is available to run applications that were developed using Intel® MPI Library

All product updates, Intel® Premier Support services, and Intel® Support Forums are included for one year. Intel Premier Support gives you confidential support, technical notes, application notes, and the latest documentation. Join the Intel® Support Forums community to learn, contribute, or just browse! http://software.intel.com/en-us/forums

Licensing

  • What kind of licenses are available for the Intel® MPI Library 4.1?

  • The Runtime license includes everything you need to run Intel MPI-based applications. The license is free and permanent. The Developer license includes everything needed to build and run applications. It is fee-based and permanent. It allows free redistribution of the components needed to run Intel MPI-based applications.

  • When is a Developer license required for the Intel® MPI Library 4.1?

  • The two kits (developer and runtime) can co-exist on a machine and it is fine for customers of Intel MPI-based applications to relink the application to include user subroutines. If the customer is actually writing MPI code (calling MPI_* functions directly), then a Developer license would be needed.

  • I am an ISV and am planning to ship my product with Intel MPI Library. Do my customers have to buy the Intel MPI Library Development Kit in order to use my software?

  • No. There are currently 3 different models if ISVs want to ship with Intel MPI Library.
    1) An ISV can redistribute the runtime components of the Intel MPI Library available from the development kit (see the redist.txt file in the Intel MPI Library installation directory for list of redistributable files).
    2) If a customer would rather install the Intel MPI Library as a system component, the Runtime Environment Kit can be downloaded free of charge from the Intel MPI Library product page.
    3) The Intel MPI Runtime Library can be pre-installed by the vendor and shipped with the application.

Downloads

Compatibility

  • Does the Intel® MPI Library 4.1 support 32-bit applications on 64-bit operating systems?

  • Yes. The Intel® MPI Library 4.1 supports 32-bit apps on 64-bit operating systems on Intel® 64.

  • Can the Intel® MPI Library 4.1 handle a mixed 32/64-bit job?

  • No. The Intel MPI Library does not support these types of heterogeneous configurations. All ranks of the job must be either IA-32, Intel® 64, or Intel® Many Integrated Core (MIC) Architecture based.

  • Is there a Microsoft* Windows* version of the Intel® MPI Library 4.1?

  • Yes. The Intel MPI Library 4.1 for Windows is available now.

  • Does the Intel MPI Library run on AMD platforms?

  • Yes. The Intel® MPI Library 4.1 is known to run on AMD platforms, and we have had no issue reports specific to AMD platforms so far.

  • Does the Intel® MPI Library 4.1 support parallel I/O calls?

  • Yes. The parallel file I/O part of the MPI-2 standard is fully implemented by the Intel® MPI Library 4.1. Some of the currently supported file systems include Unix File System (UFS), Network File System (NFS), Parallel Virtual File System (PVFS2), and Lustre*.  For a complete list, check the Release Notes.

  • Does the Intel® MPI Library 4.1 support one-sided communication?

  • Yes. The Intel® MPI Library 4.1 supports both active target and passive target one-sided communication. The only exception is the passive target one-sided communication in case the target process does not call any MPI functions.

  • Does the Intel® MPI Library 4.1 support heterogeneous clusters?

  • Up to a certain extent.  The Intel® MPI Library 4.1 does not support clusters running different operating systems.  But it does support an environment of mixed Intel processors and provides some default optimizations depending on the detected architecture.

  • What DAPL* version does the Intel® MPI Library 4.1 support?

  • The Intel® MPI Library 4.1 uses Direct Access Programming Library (DAPL) as a fabric independent API to run on fast interconnects like InfiniBand* or Myrinet*. Currently the Intel MPI Library supports DAPL* version 1.1, 1.2 as well as DAPL* version 2.0-capable providers. Intel MPI automatically determines version of DAPL standard to which the provider conforms.

  • What compilers does the Intel® MPI Library 4.1 support?

  • The Intel® MPI Library 4.1 supports Intel® Compilers 11.1 through 12.1 (or higher), as well as GNU* C, C++, Fortran77 3.3 or higher, and GNU* Fortran95 4.0 or higher. Additionally, the Intel® MPI Library 4.1 provides an unbundled source kit that offers support for the PGI* C, PGI* Fortran 77, and Absoft* Fortran 77 compilers out of the box, with the following caveats:

    • Your PGI* compiled source files must not transfer long double entities
    • Your Absoft* based build procedure must use the -g77, -B108 compiler option
    • You must take care of installing and selecting the right compilers yourself
    • You must make sure that the respective compiler runtime is installed on all nodes

    You may have to build extra Intel® MPI binding libraries if you need support for PGI* C++, PGI* Fortran 95, and Absoft* Fortran 95 bindings. If you need access to this additional binding kit, contact us via the Intel® Premier Support portal @ http://premier.intel.com

  • Does the Intel® MPI Library 4.1 work with any common resource managers?

  • Yes. The Intel® MPI Library 4.1 supports OpenPBS*, PBS Pro*, Torque, and LSF* job schedulers. The simplified job startup command mpirun recognizes when it is run inside a session started by any PBS compatible resource manager (like OpenPBS*, PBS Pro*, Torque*), as well as LSF*. See the Intel® MPI Library 4.1 Reference Manual for a description of this command.

  • I have a mixed application which uses both MPI and OpenMP* calls. Does the Intel® MPI Library 4.1 support this type of hybrid functionality?

  • Yes, Intel MPI does support mixed MPI/OpenMP applications.

Technical

  • Is the Intel® MPI Library 4.1 fault-tolerant?

  • Yes, to an extent. Note that the MPI standard does not yet define proper handling of aborted MPI ranks. By default, the Intel® MPI Library 4.1 will stop the entire application if any of the processes exit abnormally. This behavior can be overwritten via a runtime option where the library does allow for an application to continue execution even if one of the processes stops responding. Check the Intel® MPI Library 4.1 Reference Manual for details and application requirements.

  • Is the Intel® MPI Library 4.1 thread safe?

  • Yes. The Intel® MPI Library 4.1 introduces thread safe libraries at level MPI_THREAD_MULTIPLE since version 3.0. Several threads can make the Intel MPI Library calls simultaneously. Use the compiler driver -mt_mpi option to link the thread safe version of the Intel MPI Library. Use the thread safe libraries if you request the thread support at the following levels:

    MPI_THREAD_FUNNELED,
    MPI_THREAD_SERIALIZED, or
    MPI_THREAD_MULTIPLE.

    The previous versions of the Intel MPI Library provide only MPI_THREAD_NONE and MPI_THREAD_FUNNELED levels in terms of the MPI-2 standard.

  • How to learn what version of the Intel® MPI Library is installed on the system?

  • Provided you run the Intel® MPI Library 2.0.x, try running mpiexec –V:

    mpiexec –V
    This will output version information.

    If this is an official package, look up the mpisupport.txt file or the Release Notes and search for a version information there:
    cat /opt/intel/mpi/2.0.1/mpisupport.txt

    If Intel MPI has been installed in RPM mode, try to query the RPM database:
    rpm –qa | grep intel-mpi

    Finally, for full build identification information, set I_MPI_VERSION to 1 and run any MPI program, grepping for "Build":
    mpiexec –n 2 –env ./a.out | grep –i build
    This will turn up a couple of lines with the build date. Most of this information is also imbedded into the library and can be queried using the strings utility:
    strings /opt/intel/mpi/2.0.1/lib/libmpi.so | grep –i build

Licensing

  • What kind of licenses are available for the Intel® MPI Library 4.1?

  • The Runtime license includes everything you need to run Intel MPI-based applications. The license is free and permanent. The Developer license includes everything needed to build and run applications. It is fee-based and permanent. It allows free redistribution of the components needed to run Intel MPI-based applications.

  • When is a Developer license required for the Intel® MPI Library 4.1?

  • The two kits (developer and runtime) can co-exist on a machine and it is fine for customers of Intel MPI-based applications to relink the application to include user subroutines. If the customer is actually writing MPI code (calling MPI_* functions directly), then a Developer license would be needed.

  • I am an ISV and am planning to ship my product with Intel MPI Library. Do my customers have to buy the Intel MPI Library Development Kit in order to use my software?

  • No. There are currently 3 different models if ISVs want to ship with Intel MPI Library.
    1) An ISV can redistribute the runtime components of the Intel MPI Library available from the development kit (see the redist.txt file in the Intel MPI Library installation directory for list of redistributable files).
    2) If a customer would rather install the Intel MPI Library as a system component, the Runtime Environment Kit can be downloaded free of charge from the Intel MPI Library product page.
    3) The Intel MPI Runtime Library can be pre-installed by the vendor and shipped with the application.

Compatibility

  • Does the Intel® MPI Library 4.1 support 32-bit applications on 64-bit operating systems?

  • Yes. The Intel® MPI Library 4.1 supports 32-bit apps on 64-bit operating systems on Intel® 64.

  • Can the Intel® MPI Library 4.1 handle a mixed 32/64-bit job?

  • No. The Intel MPI Library does not support these types of heterogeneous configurations. All ranks of the job must be either IA-32, Intel® 64, or Intel® Many Integrated Core (MIC) Architecture based.

  • Is there a Microsoft* Windows* version of the Intel® MPI Library 4.1?

  • Yes. The Intel MPI Library 4.1 for Windows is available now.

  • Does the Intel MPI Library run on AMD platforms?

  • Yes. The Intel® MPI Library 4.1 is known to run on AMD platforms, and we have had no issue reports specific to AMD platforms so far.

  • Does the Intel® MPI Library 4.1 support parallel I/O calls?

  • Yes. The parallel file I/O part of the MPI-2 standard is fully implemented by the Intel® MPI Library 4.1. Some of the currently supported file systems include Unix File System (UFS), Network File System (NFS), Parallel Virtual File System (PVFS2), and Lustre*.  For a complete list, check the Release Notes.

  • Does the Intel® MPI Library 4.1 support one-sided communication?

  • Yes. The Intel® MPI Library 4.1 supports both active target and passive target one-sided communication. The only exception is the passive target one-sided communication in case the target process does not call any MPI functions.

  • Does the Intel® MPI Library 4.1 support heterogeneous clusters?

  • Up to a certain extent.  The Intel® MPI Library 4.1 does not support clusters running different operating systems.  But it does support an environment of mixed Intel processors and provides some default optimizations depending on the detected architecture

  • What DAPL* version does the Intel® MPI Library 4.1 support?

  • The Intel® MPI Library 4.1 uses Direct Access Programming Library (DAPL) as a fabric independent API to run on fast interconnects like InfiniBand* or Myrinet*. Currently the Intel MPI Library supports DAPL* version 1.1, 1.2 as well as DAPL* version 2.0-capable providers. Intel MPI automatically determines version of DAPL standard to which the provider conforms.

  • What compilers does the Intel® MPI Library 4.1 support?

  • The Intel® MPI Library 4.1 supports Intel® Compilers 11.1 through 12.1 (or higher), as well as GNU* C, C++, Fortran77 3.3 or higher, and GNU* Fortran95 4.0 or higher. Additionally, the Intel® MPI Library 4.1 provides an unbundled source kit that offers support for the PGI* C, PGI* Fortran 77, and Absoft* Fortran 77 compilers out of the box, with the following caveats:

    • Your PGI* compiled source files must not transfer long double entities
    • Your Absoft* based build procedure must use the -g77, -B108 compiler option
    • You must take care of installing and selecting the right compilers yourself
    • You must make sure that the respective compiler runtime is installed on all nodes

    You may have to build extra Intel® MPI binding libraries if you need support for PGI* C++, PGI* Fortran 95, and Absoft* Fortran 95 bindings. If you need access to this additional binding kit, contact us via the Intel® Premier Support portal @ http://premier.intel.com

  • Does the Intel® MPI Library 4.1 work with any common resource managers?

  • Yes. The Intel® MPI Library 4.1 supports OpenPBS*, PBS Pro*, Torque, and LSF* job schedulers. The simplified job startup command mpirun recognizes when it is run inside a session started by any PBS compatible resource manager (like OpenPBS*, PBS Pro*, Torque*), as well as LSF*. See the Intel® MPI Library 4.1 Reference Manual for a description of this command.

  • I have a mixed application which uses both MPI and OpenMP* calls. Does the Intel® MPI Library 4.1 support this type of hybrid functionality?

  • Yes, Intel MPI does support mixed MPI/OpenMP applications.

Technical

  • Is the Intel® MPI Library 4.1 fault-tolerant?

  • Yes, to an extent. Note that the MPI standard does not yet define proper handling of aborted MPI ranks. By default, the Intel® MPI Library 4.1 will stop the entire application if any of the processes exit abnormally. This behavior can be overwritten via a runtime option where the library does allow for an application to continue execution even if one of the processes stops responding. Check the Intel® MPI Library 4.1 Reference Manual for details and application requirements.

  • Is the Intel® MPI Library 4.1 thread safe?

  • Yes. The Intel® MPI Library 4.1 introduces thread safe libraries at level MPI_THREAD_MULTIPLE since version 3.0. Several threads can make the Intel MPI Library calls simultaneously. Use the compiler driver -mt_mpi option to link the thread safe version of the Intel MPI Library. Use the thread safe libraries if you request the thread support at the following levels:

    MPI_THREAD_FUNNELED,
    MPI_THREAD_SERIALIZED, or
    MPI_THREAD_MULTIPLE.

    The previous versions of the Intel MPI Library provide only MPI_THREAD_NONE and MPI_THREAD_FUNNELED levels in terms of the MPI-2 standard.

  • How to learn what version of the Intel® MPI Library is installed on the system?

  • Provided you run the Intel® MPI Library 2.0.x, try running mpiexec –V:

    mpiexec –V
    This will output version information.

    If this is an official package, look up the mpisupport.txt file or the Release Notes and search for a version information there:
    cat /opt/intel/mpi/2.0.1/mpisupport.txt

    If Intel MPI has been installed in RPM mode, try to query the RPM database:
    rpm –qa | grep intel-mpi

    Finally, for full build identification information, set I_MPI_VERSION to 1 and run any MPI program, grepping for "Build":
    mpiexec –n 2 –env ./a.out | grep –i build
    This will turn up a couple of lines with the build date. Most of this information is also imbedded into the library and can be queried using the strings utility:
    strings /opt/intel/mpi/2.0.1/lib/libmpi.so | grep –i build

Intel® MPI Library 4.1

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Intel® MPI Library 4.1 Initial Release Readme