Running MPI code in my laptop

Question

I am new to parallel computing world. Can you tell me is it possible to run a c++ code uses MPI routines in my laptop with dual core or is there any simulator/emulator for doing that?

Answer 1

Most MPI implementations use shared memory for communication between ranks that are located on the same host. Nothing special is required in terms of setting up the laptop.

Using a dual core laptop, you can run two ranks and the OS scheduler will tend to place them on separate cores. The WinXP scheduler tends to enforce some degree of "cpu binding" because by default jobs tend to be scheduled on the core where they last ran. However, most MPI implementations also allow for an explicit "cpu binding" that will force a rank to be scheduled on one specific core. The syntax for this is non-standard and must be gotten from the specific implementations documentation.

You should try to use "the same" version and implementation of MPI on your laptop that the university computers are running. That will help to ensure that the MPI runtime flags are the same.

Most MPI implementations ship with some kind of "compiler wrapper" or at least a set of instructions for building an application that will include the MPI library. Either use those wrappers, or follow those instructions.