Parallel computing offers the potential to push the performance of computer systems into new dimensions. Exploiting parallelism, concurrent tasks cooperate in solving huge computational problems. The theoretical foundations of parallel processing are wellestablished, and numerous types of parallel computers and environments are commercially available. The main obstacle for a broad application of parallel technology is the lack of parallel programming standards. This research is aimed to promote the acceptance of the Message-Passing Interface (MPI) Standard, which provides the means for writing portable software on a wide variety of parallel computers under UNIX. This thesis outlines the development and implementation of MPI for MS-Windows 3.1, which we call WinMPI. The goal of WinMPI is two-fold: 1) as a development tool, to allow the easy and inexpensive implementation of parallel software, and 2) as a learning tool, to provide a larger group of computer users the opportunity to gain ...