The Portland Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of STMicroelectronics, today announced it has accepted an invitation to become a permanent member of the OpenMP Architecture Review Board (ARB). The non-profit OpenMP ARB owns and manages the freely available OpenMP application programming interface (API) specification. The OpenMP API is the de-facto standard for programming multi-processor, shared-memory parallel (SMP) computing systems. Example systems range from dual-processor workstations to multi-processor blade servers incorporated into the world's fastest supercomputers containing thousands of processors. SMP has emerged as the preferred building-block architecture in high-performance computing due to its relative cost-effectiveness and broad industry support. The OpenMP specification provides for simple, portable and scalable SMP programming. "The Portland Group is an enthusiastic supporter of OpenMP," said Sanjiv Shah, chairperson of the OpenMP ARB. "Their participation in the ARB signals both a continuing commitment to advancing the OpenMP specifications, and a recognition of the importance the OpenMP ARB plays in its development. I'm pleased to announce The Portland Group division of STMicroelectronics as the newest member of the OpenMP ARB." In joining the OpenMP ARB, The Portland Group will work with other industry participants to expand and adapt the standard. Other members of the OpenMP ARB include ASCI Program of the US DOE, Fujitsu, HP, IBM, Intel, SGI and Sun Microsystems. The system vendors behind OpenMP collectively have delivered a large share of the shared-memory parallel systems in use today. "We're very pleased to participate in the OpenMP ARB," said Michael Wolfe, an ST Fellow at The Portland Group. "Well designed and articulated standards are critical to the acceptance of new technologies. The Portland Group and ST are pleased to help forge the future direction of high performance parallel computing through our participation in the OpenMP ARB." About OpenMP Architecture Review Board Incorporated in 1999, the OpenMP ARB's mission is to standardize shared memory multiprocessing APIs, Further information can be found at http://www.openmp.org/.