Computer Science research done on Beowulf class systems

[Andersen, Per]

We use our cluster for teaching and research. Like you said a lot of the
research is in other disciplines. The CS research on our modest cluster is
in the area of load balancing, scheduling and new parallel programming
languages. By mixing various systems with different CPUs in terms of speed
we create some interesting load balancing challenges. Cluster scheduling has
always been a problem particularly when a large number of students are using
the cluster as part of their course work in this area we have investigated
scheduling packages developed by others. The parallel languages development
is a new research project we are just getting under way. Specifically we are
developing SequenceL, a declarative language Dan Cooke our CS chair has
developed, into a cluster programming language. SequenceL has some very
important implicit parallelisms that will make programming parallel systems
easier, or at least that's our hope.

Per Andersen, MS, P.E. 
Director Advanced Computing Facility 
TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY 
Dept. of Computer Science 
Ph: 806.742.3527 
<http://acf.cs.ttu.edu> 



-----Original Message-----
From: Bradley M. Kuhn [mailto:bkuhn@ebb.org]
Sent: Monday, June 07, 1999 2:02 AM
To: beowulf@beowulf.gsfc.nasa.gov
Subject: Computer Science research done on Beowulf class systems



I am posting to ask what (if any) types of Computer Science research is
being done on Beowulf-class systems.  Our Computer Science department is
considering building one.   However, there is some concern that this
computer will be more helpful to the rest of the science departments than to
the Computer Science department.

I realize that "navel-gazing" research into making Beowulf systems better,
faster, and more reliable is certainly possible, and projects like the one
at NASA and the Mosix project are doing this type of research.

I also know that work to make automatically parallelizing compilers  (an
active area of research in the compiler design community) is very possible.

However, what I am looking for is information about *real* projects using
Beowulf-class computers for Computer Science research.  I have found lots of
information on various aerospace, geological, and other scientific problems
being solved with Beowulf class systems.  However, I don't see lots of
Computer Science projects using these systems.

If anyone could tell me about such projects, I would much appreciate it.

-- 
         -  bkuhn@ebb.org  -  Bradley M. Kuhn  -  bkuhn@gnu.org  -
                          http://www.ebb.org/bkuhn