Re: Mathematica and Multiprocessor Computers
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg5122] Re: Mathematica and Multiprocessor Computers
- From: ianc (Ian Collier)
- Date: Wed, 30 Oct 1996 22:04:50 -0500
- Organization: Wolfram Research, Inc.
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
In article <innclip556opu$p3a at dragonfly.wolfram.com>, Dave Rosky <dave.rosky at tsc.tdk.com> wrote: > [ Clipped from: comp.soft-sys.math.mathematica ] > > I am wondering if anyone has any knowlege about whether Mathematica > (particularly version 3) has any inherent capability to take advantage > of > multiple processors on machines which have them -- other than the > obvious > case of running two completely separate Mathematica sessions on the > two CPU's. I will be receiving a pentium-pro machine which is dual- > processor capable and it would be nice to know if a second processor > would provide any speed improvement. If there is no inherent > capability, > perhaps there is a way to link two kernels together to provide some > parallelism?? Appologies if this question has > already been asked; our news server only keeps articles for seven days. > > Thanks in advance for any info. > > David, > groskyd at tsc.tdk.com The following is taken from the Technical Support FAQ area of Wolfram Research's web site <http://www.wolfram.com/support>. The specific URL is: http://www.wolfram.com/support/2.2/MathLink/Tips/parallelprocessing.html Can you run Mathematica on parallel processors? Mathematica kernels can communicate with each other to simulate parallel processing (assuming you run each kernel on a different processor or a different machine). You must do the work to split the problem up into component parts each kernel can calculate, however. There is no way to get Mathematica to automatically split up a general program and communicate over parallel processors for you. If you're willing and able to do this, then here's a short tutorial on how to communicate between two kernels. Note that this can be generalized to communicating between any number of kernels. In order to open communications channels between two copies of Mathematica, you would do the following: (on kernel 1) link=LinkOpen[LinkMode->Listen,LinkProtocol->"TCP"] (on kernel 2) link=LinkOpen["#### at host", LinkMode->Connect , LinkProtocol->"TCP"] Note that the #### at host in the second command comes from the output of the LinkOpen command on the first kernel. Incidentally, opening this channel of communication requires that both computers are equipped with the ability to do TCP network from within Windows. Now, to write an expression, on kernel 1, type: LinkWrite[link, 1234] On kernel 2, type: LinkRead[link] Note that the first time you do this, the LinkWrite command might freeze. This is because the kernel 2 needs to give an initial acknowledgment before data can be passed over the link. You can pass any expression over the link, no matter how complicated. Note, however, that if you're passing an expression to be evaluated, the LinkWrite command by default evaluates the argument before it's sent over the link. That is, if you do: LinkWrite[link, FindRoot[Sin[x] == 0, {x, 1}]] what actually gets sent over the link is not FindRoot[Sin[x] == 0, {x, 1}] but is instead: {x->0} If you want to keep it from evaluating until it gets to the other side (probably very important for this application), then you'd want to do: LinkWriteHeld[link, Hold[FindRoot[Sin[x] == 0, {x, 1}]]] This writes the command over without the Hold statement, so that a LinkRead on the other side immediately evaluates the FindRoot. If you want to read the link, but not evaluate it immediately, use LinkReadHeld instead of LinkRead. LinkReadHeld immediately wraps the expression in a Hold[], which can be later released with ReleaseHold[]. Hold and ReleaseHold are documented in the book. The link reading and writing commands are documented in the MathLink Reference Guide (also avaliable from MathSource as item number 0204-398) , which should have come with your copy of Mathematica. This can be a bit overwhelming when you first get into it, so if you have any questions, feel contact Technical Support. I hope this helps. --Ian ----------------------------------------------------------- Ian Collier Wolfram Research, Inc. ----------------------------------------------------------- tel:(217) 398-0700 fax:(217) 398-0747 ianc at wolfram.com Wolfram Research Home Page: http://www.wolfram.com/ -----------------------------------------------------------