A bus oriented network where there is a charge for the amount of divisible load processed on each processor is investigated. A cost optimal processor sequencing result is found which involves assigning load to processors in nondecreasing order of the cost per load characteristic of each processor. More generally, one can trade cost against solution time. Algorithms are presented to minimize computing cost with an upper bound on solution time and to minimize solution time with an upper bound on cost. As an example of the use of this type of analysis, the effect of replacing one fast but expensive processor with a number of cheap but slow processors is also discussed. The type of questions investigated here are important for future computer utilities that perform distributed computation for some charge.
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