<s>
The	O
Multicore	B-Architecture
Communications	O
API	O
(	O
MCAPI	B-Application
)	O
is	O
the	O
first	O
specification	O
to	O
be	O
produced	O
by	O
the	O
Multicore	B-Architecture
Association	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
MCAPI	B-Application
provides	O
a	O
standardized	O
API	O
for	O
communication	O
and	O
synchronization	O
between	O
closely	O
distributed	O
(	O
multiple	O
cores	O
on	O
a	O
chip	O
and/or	O
chips	O
on	O
a	O
board	O
)	O
embedded	B-Architecture
systems	I-Architecture
.	O
</s>
<s>
MCAPI	B-Application
is	O
a	O
language-independent	O
,	O
processor	O
and	O
operating	O
system	O
agnostic	O
communications	O
protocol	O
used	O
to	O
program	O
multi-core	B-Architecture
devices	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
MCAPI	B-Application
provides	O
three	O
modes	O
of	O
communication	O
:	O
messages	O
,	O
packets	O
,	O
and	O
scalars	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
MCAPI	B-Application
is	O
a	O
message-passing	B-Architecture
application	O
programmer	O
interface	O
,	O
together	O
with	O
protocol	O
and	O
semantic	O
specifications	O
for	O
how	O
its	O
features	O
must	O
behave	O
in	O
any	O
implementation	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
primary	O
goals	O
for	O
any	O
MCAPI	B-Application
implementation	O
are	O
extremely	O
high	O
performance	O
and	O
low	O
memory	O
footprint	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
MCAPI	B-Application
traces	O
its	O
heritage	O
to	O
communications	O
APIs	O
such	O
as	O
MPI	B-Application
and	O
Berkeley	B-Protocol
sockets	I-Protocol
.	O
</s>
<s>
Both	O
MPI	B-Application
and	O
sockets	O
were	O
developed	O
primarily	O
with	O
inter-computer	O
communication	O
in	O
mind	O
,	O
while	O
MCAPI	B-Application
is	O
targeted	O
primarily	O
towards	O
inter-core	O
communication	O
in	O
a	O
multicore	B-Architecture
chip	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Accordingly	O
,	O
a	O
principal	O
design	O
goal	O
of	O
MCAPI	B-Application
was	O
to	O
serve	O
as	O
a	O
low-latency	O
interface	O
leveraging	O
efficient	O
on-chip	O
interconnect	O
in	O
a	O
multicore	B-Architecture
chip	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
However	O
,	O
because	O
of	O
the	O
more	O
limited	O
scope	O
of	O
multicore	B-Architecture
communications	O
and	O
its	O
goal	O
of	O
low	O
latency	O
,	O
MCAPI	B-Application
is	O
less	O
flexible	O
than	O
MPI	B-Application
or	O
Sockets	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
MCAPI	B-Application
provides	O
three	O
modes	O
of	O
communication	O
:	O
</s>
<s>
messages	O
–	O
connection-less	O
datagrams	B-Protocol
.	O
</s>
<s>
MCAPI	B-Application
is	O
focused	O
purely	O
on	O
embedded	O
communications	O
,	O
and	O
adds	O
the	O
ideas	O
of	O
messages	O
,	O
packets	O
,	O
and	O
scalars	O
+	O
connected	O
channels	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
allows	O
MCAPI	B-Application
to	O
support	O
various	O
quality	O
of	O
service	O
,	O
where	O
connected	O
channels	O
may	O
exploit	O
underlying	O
embedded	B-Architecture
hardware	I-Architecture
.	O
</s>
<s>
Furthermore	O
MCAPI	B-Application
supports	O
various	O
kinds	O
of	O
priorities	O
,	O
messages	O
can	O
have	O
a	O
per	O
message	O
priority	O
and	O
channels	O
can	O
be	O
treated	O
as	O
having	O
different	O
priorities	O
as	O
well	O
,	O
allowing	O
implementations	O
to	O
map	O
some	O
or	O
all	O
channels	O
to	O
dedicated	O
hardware	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
MCAPI	B-Application
can	O
also	O
support	O
zero-copy	O
via	O
assigning	O
attributes	O
to	O
connected	O
channels	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
MCAPI	B-Application
has	O
no	O
language	O
binding	O
for	O
FORTRAN	O
since	O
this	O
is	O
not	O
commonly	O
found	O
in	O
embedded	B-Architecture
systems	I-Architecture
.	O
</s>
<s>
MCAPI	B-Application
does	O
not	O
support	O
collective	O
communications	O
as	O
in	O
MPI	B-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
MCAPI	B-Application
does	O
not	O
have	O
the	O
concepts	O
of	O
groups	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
MCAPI	B-Application
does	O
not	O
have	O
any	O
synchronization	O
methods	O
as	O
in	O
MPI	B-Application
,	O
no	O
barriers	O
,	O
no	O
fences	O
,	O
no	O
locks	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
MCAPI	B-Application
has	O
no	O
file	O
objects	O
or	O
any	O
functions	O
associated	O
with	O
them	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
MCAPI	B-Application
has	O
no	O
model	O
for	O
creation	O
or	O
management	O
of	O
processes	O
.	O
</s>
