New Open MPI stable series launched: v1.8

The Open MPI project released version v1.8 last week.  This is a major release that heralds the beginning of a new production-ready series, full MPI-3.0 support, and a new OpenSHMEM implementation.

Open MPI is developed in a tick-tock fashion:

Odd-numbered series are focused on feature development and expansion

Even-numbered series are focused on stability and production usage

The even-numbered v1.8.x series therefore represents a new production-ready series that effectively deprecates the prior production-ready series (v1.6.x).

The v1.8 series culminates over a year of development, including many new features and bug fixes.

Among the biggest and easiest to discuss addition is that Open MPI now fully supports the MPI-3.0 specification, including:

MPI-3 RMA support

Fortran ’08 bindings

Matched probe/receive

Neighborhood and non-blocking collectives

“MPI_T” tools interface

…and more

The v1.8 series also includes a new OpenSHMEM implementation.  Combining OpenSHMEM and MPI implementations in a single code base allows for joint progress of network traffic as well as deep optimization possibilities.

The Open MPI team recommends that all production users upgrade to the v1.8 series when possible.

Enjoy!