[Beowulf] What now?

[Mark Hahn]

> to MPI, it just runs the same code on all the nodes. How might I split it up? 
> Ie, have one node that comes up with numbers and keeps track, and others that 
> test if it's prime? 

you bet, that's the first and most obvious approach.  books on parallel
programming often call this the master-worker model.  it has obvious
shortcomings, such as what if the master is too busy, or not busy enough?
the model can also involve too much communication, if a single work unit
doesn't take the worker long enough to solve.  so it's common to pass out
work units containing a whole range of candidates.  further, consider
factorization when implemented by division by primes - workers need to know
all primes up to sqrt(candidate), so you might have to pass along any 
new-found primes to workers, as well.

for extra credit, figure out a way to use only peers, rather than
master-worker.  this is usually very easy if you map an MPI process's 
rank onto a regular grid.  notice that regular grids become a problem 
if the work is not uniform for each grid cell - BANG!  you've reached
adaptive grids, which is pretty close to the state of the art, and now 
know everthing there is to know about parallel programming ;)

> I don't really expect an answer to that question, I was simply wondering if 
> anyone might know of some articles/tutorial/etc that deal with this.

a trip to a library or bookstore will be very rewarding, really.  books on
MPI and parallel programming will cover this stuff.

regards, mark hahn.