______________________________
/ David Feuer \
| dfeuer@binx.mbhs.edu |
| feuer@his.com |
\ david@feuer.his.com /
-----------------------------
On Thu, 5 Nov 1998, Zack Brown wrote:
> Although this is not strictly on topic, it seems strongly related to a kind
> of kernel development. I checked out distributed.net, and they seem to have
> a much different approach to the question. They are more concerned with
> parcelling out portions of a task, not with making an actual usable
> computer.
>
> Would anyone care to make predictions about when we might see a computer of
> this kind (and what obstacles stand in the way):
>
> 1) each node consists of a niced user-space program running on top of linux
> (i.e. participation in the whole does not require the dedication of all
> resources).
>
> 2) no node is more or less vital to the system than any other (!)
>
> 3) nodes can connect and disconnect at will via ppp or other mechanism
> (contributing cpu cycles for the time they are connected) without seriously
> disrupting the operation of the whole (if the node does not arrange to
> reconnect within a certain time (negotiated based on the assigned job), the
> job is reassigned). The way I envision it, a daemon is configured to watch
> (at intervals) for an internet connection. When it finds one it negotiates
> and connects to the whole.
>
> 4) nodes can locally select to include or exclude jobs (via config file)
> initiated by particular users. PGP authentication ensures identity of user.
> The effect of this is that most users won't actually be able to use the
> power of the computer, but various worthy causes will, because participants
> will include them in their config file.
>
> 5) any node can submit a job to the whole (so once you're connected, that's
> your login session).
>
> 6) a mailing list or newsgroup would serve for debates about the merits of
> particular tasks, in which various worthy causes could state their cases.
>
> 7) various "administrators" could maintain their own lists of worthy causes,
> which participants could choose to mirror, to avoid the noise of the
> discussion groups while still donating their cpu power to the supercomputer.
>
> Zack
>
>
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