Parallel Applications Development Environment (PADE)
We pronounce PADE like the family name of the French
mathematician,
Henri Padé (1863-1953).
Purpose: To facilitate development of parallel applications
for heterogeneous networked computers.
Strategy: Provides a single graphical user interface that
incorporates all essential tools for development of parallel applications.
The model is an extension of that of standard Unix-based development for a
single processor.
Implementation: PADE can employ any standard
message-passing library for interprocessor communications. Its main purpose
is to facilitate development on a heterogeneous network, so the current version
utilizes the
Parallel Virtual Machine (PVM) message passing
library, a public domain application available for most Unix systems. It
provides a graphical user interface that runs on the user's development host,
which provides all utilities for development and maintenance of programs that
run on nodes of the user's virtual machine. PADE incorporates:
- a program organizer
- a
parallel make utility
- other NIST utilities for running PVM programs
- access to standard editors, debuggers, and performance monitors
- a graphical interface to the structure of the virtual
machine, which can be modified by standard ``drag and drop'' actions
Operation: PADE provides a central console for performing
the functions typical of application development for a heterogeneous virtual
machine:
- Edit source files (potentially a different set of files
for each node on the virtual machine)
- Transfer each set of source files to the appropriate node
- Compile each set of source files on each node (in a
heterogeneous environment, the compiler for each architecture or even
each node may be slightly different).
- Execute the updated program.
System requirements: To run PADE 1.4, the development
host must support:
The nodes of the virtual machine need only support PVM version 3.0 or higher.
- Starts a project, either from scratch or by reading a configuration file
saved from a previous run
- Collects all data required to send files to all specified nodes of the
virtual machine
- Allows the user to edit any specified source file on the development host
- Starts PVM
- Saves project data in a configuration file
- Creates a PVMmake configuration file containing files and commands
to send to each node. Files can optionally be selected as those
modified since the last PVMmake command. The commands can include
`make' for compilation and linking on each node.
- Executes programs and Unix commands
- Provides for smooth completion of program, with termination of stray
spawned processes and cleanup of temporary files on each
node
The major changes to PADE for Version 1.4 are:
- Support for Tcl/Tk 8.0. Older versions of Tcl/Tk
are no longer supported. PADE 1.2 works only with
Tcl 7.3 and Tk 3.6, so the upgrade to PADE 1.4 must be made
in any environment in which Tcl/Tk are maintained in their
current versions.
- Enhanced capability to selectively send files to remote hosts
- New file browser
- Modification of File Browser Default Path preference
The major changes to PADE for Version 1.2 are:
- Added capability to selectively send files to remote hosts
- Renamed the Tree View to Graph
- Moved functions of the Setup window (adding hosts and files, opening and
saving PADE files) to the Main window under the File and Setup menus and Graph button
- Moved functions of the Run menu to the PVMmake menu and Apps menu
- Moved functions of the Monitor menu to the Apps menu
- Moved function of setting preferences under the Help menu to the
Preferences menu under the File menu
- Moved function of the Exit button to File menu
- Added Undo and Sort buttons
- Modified hosts and files manipulation capabilities in the Graph to have
the same capabilities as those under the Setup menu
- Added a .paderc file to save user preferences and other
information
- PADE can now be invoked with the name of a PADE data file on the
command line
- Made the ``look and feel'' of the graphical user interface more
``standard'', for example: File menu, accelerator keys, pasting
selections into entry windows, double-clicking to pick items in a
listbox
- The PVMmake configuration file is no longer automatically written. It must
be saved under the PVMmake menu
- Removed NIST-specific directories in pvm_tidy
- Added -ep option to padeinituser, to specify what directory to
initialize
- Major revision of the Installation and User's Manuals
By HTTP to math.nist.gov/pub/pade.
PADE documentation is available online in the form of html
documents. These documents may be retrieved in compressed form (.tar.gz) for
local viewing,
as may the PostScript versions. All documentation is included in the
full release package available at
http://math.nist.gov/pub/pade.
There are two independent pieces of PADE documentation:
- The PADE User's Manual
- This is the principal reference for use of PADE.
- The PADE Installation Guide
- This is a guide to the installation of PADE on Unix workstations.
Comments and questions may be sent to
judith.devaney@nist.gov
Some of PADE's core functionality is based on the following utilities,
which can be run as stand-alone applications
from the command line:
These utilities are provided as part of the PADE release.
- Charles Clark,
Electron and Optical Physics Division, (project leader)
- Judy Devaney,
Scientific Applications and Visualization Group, Mathematical and Computational Sciences Division, (PVMmake)
- Mark Edwards,
Georgia Southern
University and
NIST Electron and Optical Physics Division, (PVMmake)
- Robert Lipman,
Scientific Applications Support Project (Tcl/Tk coding, web pages)
- Minwen Lo,
High Performance Systems Usage Group, (installation)
- William Mitchell,
Mathematical and Computational Sciences Division, (testing, documentation)
- Justin Turner, summer student, (original Tcl/Tk coding)
This software was developed at the National Institute of Standards
and Technology by employees of the Federal Government in the course
of their official duties. Pursuant to title 17 Section 105 of the
United States Code this software is not subject to copyright
protection and is in the public domain. WebSubmit is an experimental
system. NIST assumes no responsibility whatsoever for its use by
other parties, and makes no guarantees, expressed or implied, about
its quality, reliability, or any other characteristic.
We would appreciate acknowledgement if the software is used.