Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!uflorida!haven!ncifcrf!nlm-mcs!usenet
From: usenet@nlm-mcs.arpa (usenet news poster)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Centralized vs distributed computing
Message-ID: <11743@nlm-mcs.arpa>
Date: 22 Mar 90 13:21:44 GMT
References: <9003210649.AA06750@jade.berkeley.edu> <20059.26079ecc@ccavax.camb.com>
Reply-To: states@tech.NLM.NIH.GOV (David States)
Organization: National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, Md.
Lines: 17


What you want on your desk is enough computing to support your environment
(windows, editors etc.) because that is where keystroke response time matters.
It is also the computing you use in a continuous mode (as opposed to bursts).

What you want the net for is access to specialized processors (database
servers, floating point engines, parallel nets etc.) because these are
the sorts of things you use in bursts and can't afford to put on your
desk anyway. 

There are lots of systems going in this direction (Vax clusters, IBM's trans-
parent computing interface, diskless workstation local networks, +-X-terminal
local nets).  The problem is standardization.  You don't get the benefit
of the net if your local processor can't talk effectively with the
resource you want.
				David States
				(standard discalimer, views are my own only)