Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!mailrus!uflorida!gatech!hubcap!boulder!tramp!hassell From: boulder!tramp!hassell@ncar.UCAR.EDU (Christopher Hassell) Newsgroups: comp.parallel Subject: System: North America [a massively parallel PD computer?] Message-ID: <3884@hubcap.UUCP> Date: 14 Dec 88 13:54:29 GMT Sender: fpst@hubcap.UUCP Lines: 40 Approved: parallel@hubcap.clemson.edu Short Scenarios You walk into your office with the same malarky to do. When you login you get the normal 'You have mail' and learn that your algorithm in the South Net just finished your last neural-net study and is going on to the poll you put in. Dang, that site being down bent the whole net out of shape, you think. It took 4 hours longer for that 10 Giganode system to converge, than you'd guessed. Someone next door just got back her bitmaps for a raytracer that was distributed in the North Quadrant, and got back the auto-poll for her system information made available by default. Her mail comes in from the public e-mail, it has all of her reference material needed. Now that the new phone adaptation is being used costs are nothing to worry about so bulk e-mail is nothing. Okay the above is nothing to Jump about. I couldn't think of enough possib- ilities. Actually games are a distinct possibility too, but enough of that. What I'm suggesting is a replacement for worms (malignant) to put their abilities to work. I've wondered for a while what a 'transient program' could do, wandering across the U.S., using few cycles on many machines. Why doesn't someone try this? It is already done with human support, and everything else in here is automated city. I've suggested this as a replacement for The Worm (to keep our idle hands busy) and allow experiments on a `Public' computer that size. I only got a response remarking how Max Headrooms would flood our screens. . Seriously, standards can be set. Bulletproof and sealed environments for them to do their work are also possible. Comp.parallel appears to be the only relevant group left, especially for those who Haven't got a toy to play with. I personally would find the possibilities fascinating. Polls could be easily automated for the systems. MAAssive algorithms running low-priority and low-connectivity algorithms could be a blinding resource, not to mention normal massively parallel ones. As for the e-mail, it could be as smart as necessary, AIDing the phone company in finding the best time to tie up a line, making lower costs all around. Because of its versitility, priorities could be set maximising performance, and minimising cost to system (phone and others). Does Anyone see how useful it could be? I see it on the horizon, but not Now.