High Performance Computing for the masses

摘要

Recent advances in software and hardwar for clustered computing have allowed scientists and computing spcialists to take advantage of ocmmodity processors in solving challenging ocmputational problems. The setup, management and coding involved in parallel programming along with the challwnges of heterogeneous computing machinery prevent most non-technical users from taking advantage of ocmpute resources that may be available to them. This researh dmeonstrates a java based system that allows a naive user to make effecitve use of local resources ofr parallel computing. The DOGMA system provides a "point-and-click" interface that manages idle workstations, dedicated clusters and remote computational resources so that they can be used for parallel computing. Just as the "web browser" enabled use of the Internet by the "masses", we see simplified user interfaces to parallel processing as being critical to widespread use. This paper describes many of the barriers to widespread use and shows how they are addressed in this research.