The current development version of Scientific Python contains an experimental package for high-level parallelization. It is based on the Bulk Synchronous Parallel (BSP) paradigm (see www.bsp-worldwide.org for more information), which is much simpler than the more popular message-passing paradigm and also safer, especially due to the impossibility of deadlocks. The main initial goal of the Python BSP package is a well-integrated Pythonesque implementation of BSP that makes parallel programming accessible to a wider range of developers. Performance has been a secondary criterion until now and can certainly be improved, but the current implementation is quite usable for coarse-grained parallelism. The package is labelled "experimental" because it has only been tested with a very small number of applications; future experience may lead to modifications that are not necessarily fully compatible with the current release. Scientific Python 2.3.1 is available from ftp://dirac.cnrs-orleans.fr/pub/ScientificPython/ScientificPython-2.3.1.tar.gz Prerequisites are Python 1.5.2 or higher (2.1 recommended for full access to all features) and an MPI implementation. A tutorial is included, but can also be obtained separately from http://dirac.cnrs-orleans.fr/programs/BSP_Tutorial.pdf -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Konrad Hinsen | E-Mail: hinsen@cnrs-orleans.fr Centre de Biophysique Moleculaire (CNRS) | Tel.: +33-2.38.25.56.24 Rue Charles Sadron | Fax: +33-2.38.63.15.17 45071 Orleans Cedex 2 | Deutsch/Esperanto/English/ France | Nederlands/Francais -------------------------------------------------------------------------------