ORNL-RSH Package and Windows '03 PVM 3.4

The first public release of PVM was version 2.0 in February 1991; the first PVM release from Oak Ridge National Laboratory that supported the Windows operating system was version 3.4 (beta 5) at the end of 1997 and then with the formal release of PVM version 3.4.0 in January 1999. While this initial release provided the PVM framework and functionality to the Windows world, there were a number of shortcomings that created undue difficulties for users. Some of the problems encountered included the difficulty of the installation process itself, the necessity for a 3rd party and costly rsh package, and the lack of Windows user level documentation of the entire process (from install to use). Thus, the general goal of this work and its resulting release is to simplify the use of Windows PVM by its user community. To achieve this goal, the new package will have to include: a simplified installation process on individual and networked machines (clusters), a simplified and free (open source preferred) rsh package for PVM, and of course the associated documentation so that others may more easily use all the new software. This paper contains a brief introduction of new features included in the latest Windows PVM release and spends the remainder of the paper discussing the details of the new ORNLRSH package that greatly simplifies the use PVM on Windows based machines.