Beowulf (computing)
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Beowulf is a design for high-performance parallel computing clusters on inexpensive personal computer hardware. Originally developed by Donald Becker at NASA, Beowulf systems are now deployed worldwide, chiefly in support of scientific computing.
A Beowulf cluster is a group of usually identical PC computers running a FOSS Unix-like operating system, such as Linux or BSD. They are networked into a small TCP/IP LAN, and have libraries and programs installed which allow processing to be shared among them.
There is no particular piece of software that defines a cluster as a Beowulf. Commonly used parallel processing libraries include MPI (Message Passing Interface) and PVM (Parallel Virtual Machine). Both of these permit the programmer to divide a task among a group of networked computers, and recollect the results of processing.
The name comes from the main character in the Old English epic Beowulf.
Operating systems
Presently, there are a number of different Linux distributions that are designed for building Beowulf clusters. These include:- ClusterKnoppix (based on Knoppix)
- (geared towards multimedia production)
- ROCK Linux
- Scyld
A cluster can be set up by using Knoppix bootable CDs in combination with OpenMosix. The computers will automatically link together, without need for complex configurations, to form a Beowulf cluster utilizing all CPUs and RAM in the cluster. This type of system is scalable to a nearly unlimited number of computers.
Examples
- Kentucky Linux Athlon Testbed (KLAT2)
- Stone Soupercomputer
- [Carnegie Mellon University, Process Systems Engineering Beowulf Cluster]
- [Southampton University, Information Systems Services, Iridis Beowulf Cluster]
- [Asgard - Beowulf Computing at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology]
Other software solutions
- [Maui Cluster Scheduler]-open source
- [TORQUE Resource Manager]-open source
- [Moab Cluster Suite]-commercial
- [Moab Grid Suite]-commercial
- Sun Grid Engine
See also
External links
- [LinuxHPC.org]
- [Beowulf.org]
- [MPI homepage]
- [KLAT2]
- [Cluster Builder]
- [NPACI Rocks]
- [Engineering a Beowulf-style Compute Cluster]
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