OpenMPI 5.0 Ready To Say "Goodbye" To 32-Bit Support
([Hardware] 5 Hours Ago
Eliminating 32-Bit Support)
- Reference: 0001370843
- News link: https://www.phoronix.com/news/OpenMPI-5.0-Drops-32-bit
- Source link:
The OpenMPI message passing interface library is ready to completely abandon 32-bit software support with its forthcoming v5.0 release.
OpenMPI 5.0 plans to ship without 32-bit software support, regardless whether Arm, x86, or for other 32-bit CPU architectures. 32-bit software environments are simply not going to be supported and the OpenMPI build system is set to [1]abort if trying to build for a 32-bit environment.
At this stage the change is just with the build system to block 32-bit builds so if a real need arises it could be reverted after OpenMPI 5.0.0, but the hope by this MPI project is that they can finally retire 32-bit software support in full. If no one complains, the developers will move ahead and gutting the rest of the 32-bit infrastructure/code. The developers [2]found no one willing to step up to maintain the 32-bit support no any real-world users/customers relying on it.
[3]
Intel Xeon LV 32-bit processors from many years ago at Phoronix... It's been a while since 32-bit hardware/software was common for HPC use.
OpenMPI is widely-used in the HPC space that has been 64-bit for a while and in 2023 it's a good move to finally bid farewell to 32-bit support where users can continue relying upon OpenMPI 4.x if really there is such a real-world use remaining. If you are making serious use of MPI / OpenMPI in 2023 and beyond for parallel computing, it's past due to upgrade.
[1] https://github.com/open-mpi/ompi/pull/11282
[2] https://github.com/open-mpi/ompi/issues/11248#issuecomment-1376341965
[3] https://www.phoronix.com/image-viewer.php?id=508&image=tyan_s5365_board2_lrg
OpenMPI 5.0 plans to ship without 32-bit software support, regardless whether Arm, x86, or for other 32-bit CPU architectures. 32-bit software environments are simply not going to be supported and the OpenMPI build system is set to [1]abort if trying to build for a 32-bit environment.
At this stage the change is just with the build system to block 32-bit builds so if a real need arises it could be reverted after OpenMPI 5.0.0, but the hope by this MPI project is that they can finally retire 32-bit software support in full. If no one complains, the developers will move ahead and gutting the rest of the 32-bit infrastructure/code. The developers [2]found no one willing to step up to maintain the 32-bit support no any real-world users/customers relying on it.
[3]
Intel Xeon LV 32-bit processors from many years ago at Phoronix... It's been a while since 32-bit hardware/software was common for HPC use.
OpenMPI is widely-used in the HPC space that has been 64-bit for a while and in 2023 it's a good move to finally bid farewell to 32-bit support where users can continue relying upon OpenMPI 4.x if really there is such a real-world use remaining. If you are making serious use of MPI / OpenMPI in 2023 and beyond for parallel computing, it's past due to upgrade.
[1] https://github.com/open-mpi/ompi/pull/11282
[2] https://github.com/open-mpi/ompi/issues/11248#issuecomment-1376341965
[3] https://www.phoronix.com/image-viewer.php?id=508&image=tyan_s5365_board2_lrg
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