Does openMP have a runtime (like .NET CLR on top of operating system) or just a compiler?
A:
OpenMP doesn't really have, or need, anything like the .NET CLR. Compilers typically produce code which uses one or other of the approaches to threading already installed on the platform. There are also a few environment variables which OpenMP programs may want to use, but that hardly constitues a run-time system either.
I've never come across an OpenMP compiler which needed a separate installation of a run time system or anything like one.
EDIT: An OpenMP installation also needs to provide functions such as omp_get_thread_num which are usually packaged in a library of some sort.
High Performance Mark
2010-09-22 11:59:01
I agree. I am confused because I read on DrDobbs about openMP runtime, and the article even claims that some implementations create thread pool.
r00kie
2010-09-23 02:04:56
OpenMP programs will often create a thread pool, or, perhaps more accurately, often have the operating system create a thread pool. Which is something most o/s can do without added software.
High Performance Mark
2010-09-23 05:51:51