Roman Shaposhnik's

There are 3 reasons behind this blog entry: first of all, the OpenMP 3.0 specification is now available for public comment. That in turn, made OpenMP ARB's CEO Larry Meadows proclaim The Birth of OpenMP 3.0 and introduce the most anticipate new feature: the tasking model. Finally, I've just got back from Super Computing '07 in Reno where OpenMP BOF took place and clearly showed that the OpenMP 3.0 tasking model is not well understood and, worse yet, it seems to be missing a number of important capabilities. Before I jump to my critique, let me just point out one thing. There is no doubt in my mind, that OpenMP 3.0 represents a step in the right direction, yet I can't help but notice its slow pace of development. If it took us 10 years to get to the point where explicit tasks are possible how long would it take us to make them actually useful? And in the meantime, wouldn't programmers be better off sticking to something like Cilk or Rapid Minds frameworks? [Read More]

I guess it is time to confess: I've recently had one of my childhood dreams granted. Of course, as always with dreams, I've hesitated to tell anybody but the close friends. I had to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. Now it is time. The cat is out of the bag: Linux Journal published my first-ever printed article in their November issue (#163, dedicated to High Performance Computing). And if that wasn't enough they are distributing that very issue at the Supercomputing conference in Reno! With all the attendees carrying those issues around (anybody can get one for free from the Linux Journal booth or from the press shelf at the entrance) it almost feels like I am on a book signing tour. It feels really great and a bit scary (what if somebody walks up to me and points out a bug?) at the same time. But it all would have not happened it it wasn't for one person. A person whom I'm lucky enough to call a friend and a teacher: Jon "maddog" Hall. Thank you, Maddog, for the advice and most of all for babysitting me through my first publishing experience.

That said, I would like to ask all the readers of the article to be gentle with me. All the typos, errors and bloopers in it are mine and mine only and I don't have any good excuse except for it being my first foray into printed media. I'll do better next time. I promise. So be gentle, but please feel free to leave your comments at the end of this blog entry, since I don't think that the comments section on the Linux Journal's web site is open yet. Besides, even if it was open you would have to be a subscriber of LJ (it is really worth the money, though) to get to it.

And finally: if you happen to be in Reno attending SC|07 consider dropping by the Sun's booth. Just remember: you can always make my day if you behave and ask for the autograph. Easy stuff. See you!