Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!voder!dtg.nsc.com!andrew
From: andrew@dtg.nsc.com (Lord Snooty @ The Giant Poisoned Electric Head       )
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Multiprocessing in your own PC lab
Summary: stealing idle cycles
Message-ID: <892@blenheim.nsc.com>
Date: 2 May 90 00:40:02 GMT
References: <0093608E.3DCAF480@KING.ENG.UMD.EDU>
Organization: National Semiconductor, Santa Clara
Lines: 14

<0093608E.3DCAF480@KING.ENG.UMD.EDU>, sysmgr@KING.ENG.UMD.EDU (Doug Mohney) :
> I know this will sound hairbrained, but you only live once...
> Couldn't you take a room full of workstations or PCs and (through the
> appropriate software) treat them as a one big parallel processing
> machine? Of course, you would have to set up a scheduler, figure out
> how to parallelize your code/problem accordingly ......

Not harebrained at all. Try IEEE Spectrum this month for the article by
David Gelernter, "Stealing Idle Cycles" (or close) in the context of Linda and 
his "hypercomputer". It seems MIT Media Labs have something on these lines
already running.....
-- 
...........................................................................
Andrew Palfreyman	andrew@dtg.nsc.com	Albania during April!