"Muqun (Kent) Yang" <ymuqun@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
> Ed:
> On Wed, 29 Jun 2005, Ed Hartnett wrote:
>
>> Howdy all!
>>
>> I have a question about parallel programming with HDF5. Do parallel
>> programmers just not use unlimited dimensions?
>>
> You can use unlimited dimensions for parallel programming.
>> I noticed that H5Dextend is a collective operation. This would make it
>> difficult for programs to add a record at a time.
>>
>
> I don't think it is difficult as long as all processors participate.
But doesn't that waste a lot of cycles, wait to sync up every time a
new record is written?
As I understand it, using fixed-length data, my different processes
could write their data and go on their merry way, without waiting for
anything.
Maybe this just doesn't matter much because it's not the bottleneck.
>
> I may miss something. Parallel NetCDF tests I wrote include unlimited
> dimension dataset tests for both collective and independent modes. Tests
> passed.
>
> Although H5Dextend is collective, I remember that I noticed that doesn't
> matter for netCDF4 users. I may be wrong. Maybe other people can give
> some insights.
>
As currently implemented, H5Dextend is called when needed as you write
the data in netcdf. That is, if you are writing a record at a time,
H5Dextend is called for each record.
Thanks,
Ed
--
Ed Hartnett -- ed@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
