Dynamic balancing complex workload in workstation networks - challenge, concepts and experience

Workstation clusters are being recognized as the main promising computing resource of the near future. A large size workstation cluster, consisting of locally connected workstations, has the power comparable to a supercomputer, at a fraction of the cost. Further, a wide area coupling of workstation clusters is not only suitable for exchange of mail and news or establishment of distributed information systems, but can also be exploited as a large metacomputer. The wide area distribution aspects will be covered in a separate paper by the E=MC2 project [8]. This paper shows the potential power by characterizing the system and the needs of current applications, and outlines the general idea to efficiently utilize networks of workstation. The second part of the paper introduces the approach of the HiCon project to solve the operating system and programming environment problems that currently restrict proper exploitation of workstation clusters, and demonstrates the feasibility by real measurement results. It concludes with general results for the research community in this area.