[zeromq-dev] anyone try to use 0mq for BSP

[Santy, Michael]

> Funny you should mention it. I did not know what MPI was, but was reading up on it when received your
> message. It does seem that 0mq and MPI try to solve the same problem as tools for parallelizing 
> execution. I have not tried MPI and I am not sure what the difference is in terms of application.

MPI is great for performance but introduces a tight coupling between MPI processes.  MPI is almost always used in a SPMD[1] configuration.  Every MPI_send() on one end must be accompanied by a MPI_recv() at the recipient.  ZMQ gives you more flexibility and loose coupling at the expense of performance.  I view the two approaches as complimentary.  There's no reason why you couldn't use MPI for communication within a tightly coupled set of processes (such as with BSP), but use something else (e.g., ZMQ) to communicate with the outside world.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPMD

Mike

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