Cooperating runtime systems in LiPS
Thomas Setz, Thomas Liefke · 1997
. Performing computation using networks of workstations is increasingly becoming an alternative to using a supercomputer. This approach is motivated by the vast quantities of unused idle-time available in workstation networks. Unlike computing on a tightly coupled parallel computer, where a fixed number of processor nodes is used within a computation, the number of usable nodes in a workstation network is constantly changing over time. Additionally, workstations are more frequently subject to outages, e.g. due to reboots. The question arises how applications, adapting smoothly to this environment, should be realized. LiPS 1 is a system for distributed computing using idle-cycles in networks of workstations. This system in its version 2.3 is currently used at the Universitat des Saarlandes in Saarbrucken, Germany to perform computationally intensive applications in the field of cryptography on a net of approximately 250 workstations and should be enhanced to work within an environmen...