Solving Computational Grand Challenges Using a Network of Heterogeneous Supercomputers

Abstract

. This paper describes experiments connecting a Cray XMP, Intel iPSC/860, and Thinking Machines CM2 together over a high speed network to form a much larger virtual computer. The purpose of the experiments is to demonstrate the power and flexibility of the PVM (Parallel Virtual Machine) system to allow programmers to exploit a diverse collection of the most powerful computers available to solve Grand Challenge problems. 1. Introduction. Wide area computer networks have become a basic part of today's computing infrastructure. These networks connect a variety of machines, representing an enormous computational resource. In this paper we describe two software packages we are developing to facilitate the use of a network of heterogeneous computers. The first, PVM (Parallel Virtual Machine) allows utilization of the network of machines as a single computational resource. The second, HeNCE (Heterogeneous Network Computing Environment), is a graphical tool to assist the user in writing and an...