1 Motivation

CHARM++ includes several application frameworks, such as the Finite Element Framework, the Multiblock Framework, and AMPI. These frameworks do almost all their work in load balanced, migratable threads.

The Threaded CHARM++ Framework, TCHARM, provides both common runtime support for these threads and facilities for combining multiple frameworks within a single program. For example, you can use TCHARM to create a Finite Element Framework application that also uses AMPI to communicate between Finite Element chunks.

Specifically, TCHARM provides language-neutral interfaces for:

1. Program startup, including read-only global data setup and the configuration of multiple frameworks.
2. Run-time load balancing, including migration.
3. Program shutdown.

The first portion of this manual describes the general properties of TCHARM common to all the application frameworks, such as program contexts and how to write migratable code. The second portion describes in detail how to combine separate frameworks into a single application.