Bug#862313: ITP: libpsm2 -- PSM2 runtime, dev and compatibility libraries for Intel Omni-Path

["Brian T. Smith" <bsmith@systemfabricworks.com>]

Package: wnpp
Severity: wishlist
Owner: "Brian T. Smith" <bsmith@systemfabricworks.com>

* Package name    : libpsm2
  Version         : 4.0
  Upstream Author : 01org <webmaster@linux.intel.com>
* URL             : https://github.com/01org
* License         : GPL, BSD
  Programming Lang: C
  Description     : PSM2 runtime, dev and compatibility libraries for Intel Omni-Path

libpsm2 provides the Performance Scaled Messaging API for user-space
applications that wish to perform high-bandwidth, low-latency RDMA 
communications (e.g. openmpi, mvapich2). 

The predecessor of PSM2 is the PSM API provided by libpsm-infinipath1. Intel
Omni-Path hardware and the supporting hfi1 kernel module require use of 
PSM2. 

libpsm2 will be able to coexist on a system that has libpsm-infinipath1
installed. It is not a replacement for libpsm-infinipath1. A host that has
PSM and PSM2 capable hardware should be able to use either API, depending
upon the fabric interface needed for communications.

This proposal involves multiple packages:

  * libpsm2 - runtime libraries for PSM2
  * libpsm2-dev - development headers and linker libraries for PSM2
  * libpsm2-compat - compatibility library for PSM applications

The purpose of libpsm2-compat is to allow a PSM application to use hardware
that requires PSM2 (e.g. Intel Omni-Path). An example of such an application
is openmpi 1.6.5. By prepending the compatibility library's installation 
directory to LD_LIBRARY_PATH, a PSM application is able to transparently
use the PSM2 API without requiring a code port or recompilation.

I have been maintaining the Intel Fabric Suite for Omni-Path on Debian for
the past year as an employee of System Fabric Works (SFW). SFW has adequate
hardware and resources to test and maintain this package.