Recommendations on distributed computing (for Apollos)?

[John W. Baugh Jr.]

I'd like to use an ethernet-connected network of 10 Apollo DN[34]xxx
machines (SR10.2) for distributed programming, with the intent of
improving the performance of compute-intensive numerical programs
(i.e., not for things like distributed mail servers).

My preference is to program in C with extensions like
send(msg,process), receive(msg,process), cobegin, and so on.
Alternatively, failing the availability of such, what is a reasonably
user-friendly approach?  sockets (ugh)?  Apollo RPC?  Any comments
and/or war stories would be welcomed.  I'm particularly interested in
any Apollo-specific gotcha's.

Many thanks,

John Baugh
jwb at cepmax.ncsu.edu