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This paper presents the design, implementation and performance evalua-tion of a message passing facility (MPF) for shared memory multiproces-sors. MPF is based on a message passing model conceptually similar to conversations. Participants (parallel processes) can enter or leave a conversation at any time. The message passing primitives for this model are implemented as a portable library of C function calls. MPF is currently operational on a Sequent Balance 21000, and several parallel applications have been developed and tested. We present several simpie benchmark programs to establish interprocess communication perfor-mance for common patterns of interprocess communication. Finally, we present performance figures for two parallel applications, linear systems solution and iterative solution of partial differential equations. (NASA-CB-18062 1) HPF: A FCElAELE LlESSAGE N67-26s 1