PARDISC: A Cost Effective Model for Parallel and Distributed
Computing
Abstract
A homogeneous system of PCs, workstations, minicomputers etc., connected
together via a local area network or wide area network represents a large
pool of computational power. However, in a network of PCs and workstations,
transparency is not provided and hence, users are aware of other machines.
PARDISC is a parallel programming environment, which provides the needed
transparency as a scalable OpenFrame Computing Model. PARDISC stands for
PARallel and DIStributed Computing on a homogeneous network. It supports
three models of computing by providing the functionalities required to
view any homogeneous network as a Loosely Coupled Parallel Computer, Processor
Pool Architecture, or Cluster of Workstations.
PARDISC aims at providing a cost effective parallel and distributed
programming environment to the academic and R & D institutions, since
it employs the existing well established Local Area Network (LAN) and models
it to support both the paradigms. This paper presents an overview of PARDISC
along with its architecture and design. It discusses how PARDISC can be
used to configure the network as a loosely coupled parallel machine, processor
pool architecture, and distributed computing environment with Logical Network
Connectivity. Software architecture discusses configuration servers, client
processes, processor pool servers, and process communication interface
of PARDISC. We end the paper with a description of some issues parallel
programming.
Keywords: PARDISC, Parallel, Distributed, Processor Pool, Logical
Connectivity, Loosely Coupled Parallel Machine, Configuration, Process
Communication Interface.
Click here to download the PARDISC Paper
(which is in Postscript format)
Appeared in: The 3rd International Conference on High Performance
Computing, IEEE Computer Society Press, 1996.
Also appeared in: The Hindu's Business Line National News Paper
on January 9, 1997.