Apple has revamped part of the Science & Technology section of its Web site. The company has added new resources to its High Performance Computing (HPC) and Clustering Web pages. The HPC page offers general information on the concept of clustering and scalable computing. The Clustering page itself offers information and direct links to a number of resources for developing a Mac OS X based cluster, including: G•Rack from Marathon Computer, a Linda cluster, Load Sharing Facility (LSF) from Platform Computing Inc., MPI/Pro, Paradise, Pooch (Parallel OperatiOn and Control Heuristic application), VAST (from Veridian Systems), and VSI/Pro.
Clustering is the term used for using multiple computers, usually connected on a network, to jointly work on a single project. Effectively, a Cluster is an inexpensive supercomputer, and Clustering has become an increasingly popular way for universities and corporations to tackle massive computing projects. There is a difference between Clustering and distributed processing such as that used by the SETI@home project. Distributed processing breaks up a large task into small bits and sends those bits out to participating computers for processing through some form of client app that runs on that computer. Once completed, the results of the small bits are sent back to the master computer for compilation into the greater whole. Clustering treats all the participating computers as mere extensions of a larger, virtual computer.
Direct links:
- Appleis High Performance Computing page
- Appleis Mac OS X Clustering page
One can normally find those pages in the Science & Technology Research Tools page.