DEVELOPMENT OF MIDDLEWARE ON WINDOWS-BASED PC CLUSTER FOR PARALLEL PROCESSING

摘要

We have developed the middleware, "WINGware," running on a Windows-based PC cluster for parallel processing. It has functions for parallel data distribution and automatic load balancing. It allows porting of Windows-based applications such as 3-dimensional CAD to PC clusters easily, and it gives high computational performance to the applications. We conducted three benchmark tests to evaluate the effect of parallelization with this middleware. The programs used in these tests were Mandelbrot set drawing, volume rendering, and three-dimensional Gaussian filtering. In the first, we established about a 94% parallelizing efficiency by resolving load unbalance with the automatic load balancing function of WINGware. In the other two tests, we obtained 54 to 96% parallelizing efficiencies. Our results verified the effect of WINGware. The time needed for program modification for parallelizing with this middleware was 2 to 3 days.