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]