An analysis of distributed computing software and hardware for applications in computational physics
Paul David Coddington · 2002
The author has implemented a set of computational physics codes on a network of IBM RS/6000 workstations used as a distributed parallel computer. He compares the performance of the codes on this network, using both standard Ethernet connections and a fast prototype switch, and also on the nCUBE/2, a MIMD parallel computer. The algorithms used range from simple, local, and regular to complex, non-local, and irregular. He describes his experiences with the hardware, software and parallel languages used, and discusses ideas for making distributed parallel computing on workstation networks more easily usable for computational physicists.>