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## Process Grid

The P processes of an abstract parallel computer are often represented as a one-dimensional linear array of processes labeled . For reasons described below, it is often more convenient to map this one-dimensional array of processes into a two-dimensional rectangular grid, or process grid. (A process grid is also referred to as a process mesh.) This grid will have process rows and process columns, where . A process can now be referenced by its row and column coordinates, (), within the grid, where , and ). An example of such a mapping is shown in figure 4.1, where and .

Figure 4.1: Eight processes mapped to a process grid

In figure 4.1, the processes are mapped to the process grid by using row-major order ; in other words, the numbering of the processes increases sequentially across each row. Similarly, the processes can be mapped in a column-major order whereby the numbering of the processes proceeds down each column of the process grid. The BLACS routine BLACS_GRIDINIT performs this task of mapping the processes to the process grid. By default, BLACS_GRIDINIT assumes a row-major ordering, although a column-major ordering can also be specified. The companion routine BLACS_GRIDMAP is a more general form of BLACS_GRIDINIT and allows the user to define the mapping of the processes . Refer to the Appendix D.3 for further details.

All ScaLAPACK routines, with the exception of the band linear system routines, allow the processes to be viewed as a one-dimensional or two-dimensional process grid. The band routines support only one-dimensional process grids.