MPI Application Binary Interface Standardization
Jeff R. Hammond, Lisandro Dalcín, Erik Schnetter, Marc Pérache, Jean-Baptiste Besnard, Jed Brown, Gonzalo Brito Gadeschi, Simon Byrne, Joseph Schuchart, Hui Zhou · 2023
MPI is the most widely used interface for high-performance computing (HPC) workloads. Its success lies in its embrace of libraries and ability to evolve while maintaining backward compatibility for older codes, enabling them to run on new architectures for many years. In this paper, we propose a new level of MPI compatibility: a standard Application Binary Interface (ABI). We review the history of MPI implementation ABIs, identify the constraints from the MPI standard and ISO C, and summarize recent efforts to develop a standard ABI for MPI. We provide the current proposal from the MPI Forum’s ABI working group, which has been prototyped both within MPICH and as an independent abstraction layer called Mukautuva. We also list several use cases that would benefit from the definition of an ABI while outlining the remaining constraints.