Parallel Computing With Linux

by Forrest Hoffman and William Hargrove

Linux is just now making a significant impact on the computing industry, but it has been a powerful tool for computer scientists and computational scientists for a number of years. Aside from the obvious benefits of working with freely-available, reliable, and efficient open source operating system [1], the advent of Beowulf-style cluster computing--pioneered by Donald Becker, Thomas Sterling, et al. [2] at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center--extends the utility of Linux to the realm of high performance parallel computing. Today, these commodity PC-based clusters are cropping up in federal research laboratories, industrial R&D centers, universities, and even small colleges [3, 4]. If a computational problem can be solved in a loosely-coupled distributed memory environment, a Beowulf cluster--or Pile of PCs (POP)--may be the answer; and it "weighs in" at a price point traditional parallel computer manufacturers cannot touch.

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Building A Beowulf - A Lite Tutorial

Anyone can construct a parallel computer adequate for teaching parallel programming and running parallel codes--often using existing or excess PCs. PCs in an established computer laboratory can be adapted for dual use, dual-boot systems so that they can be rebooted into either Linux or Microsoft Windows, depending on the present need. Alternatively, unused equipment can be collected and fashioned into a parallel system as we have done.

No two Beowulf clusters are the same. In fact, their hardware and software configurations are so flexible and customizable that they present a wide array of possibilities. In this tutorial, we hope to provide some guidelines and considerations for narrowing this wide field of choices. While every Beowulf cluster is different and configurations are dictated by application needs, some minimum requirements can be specified.

Go there...
http://www.acm.org/crossroads/xrds6-1/parallel.html

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