Software Tools

Software tools for distributed processing include standard APIs such as MPI and PVM, and open source-based software solutions such as Beowulf and openMosix which facilitate the creation of a sort of "virtual supercomputer" from a collection of ordinary workstations or servers. Technology like ZeroConf (Rendezvous/Bonjour) pave the way for the creation of ad hoc computer clusters. An example of this is the distributed rendering function in Apple's Shake compositing application. Computers running the Shake software merely need to be in proximity to each other, in networking terms, to automatically discover and use each other's resources. While no one has yet built an ad hoc computer cluster that rivals even yesteryear's supercomputers, the line between desktop, or even laptop, and supercomputer is beginning to blur, and is likely to continue to blur as built-in support for parallelism and distributed processing increases in mainstream desktop operating systems. An easy programming language for supercomputers remains an open research topic in Computer Science.

 
 

 

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Beowulf
Beowulf is a design for high-performance parallel computing clusters on inexpensive pc hardware. Originally developed by Donald Becker at NASA...

MOSIX
MOSIX is a cluster management system that provides single-system image capabilities. It is particularly useful for running parallel...

OpenMosix
openMosix is a free cluster management system that provides single-system image capabilities. It allows program processes...

Zeroconf
Zeroconf or Zero Configuration Networking or in Microsoft language Automatic Private IP Addressing is a set of techniques...