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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">Why not…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">Does it use “commodity hardware” - sounds like you do<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">Does it use “commodity software” – XP, for good or bad, is certainly commodity<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">(there are those that would maintain that a Beowulf must use open source, but I think that’s not a defining case)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">The question you might want to ask is whether there is some concept of “multiple machines working as a whole”. How is what you’re doing different from a fileserver
and a bunch of independent computers. I think, because you have a master assigning work, it fits in the cluster bucket. What really distinguishes most cluster computing is the concept of interprocess communication (between nodes) as part of the computational
task. Whether that’s done by “messages on Ethernet” or “files” is more a matter of detail, than concept.<br>
People run Embarassingly Parallel applications on Beowulf clusters all the time.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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Is a “render farm” a Beowulf?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">Jim Lux<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""> Beowulf [mailto:beowulf-bounces@beowulf.org]
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Nathan Pimental<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Monday, February 24, 2014 8:04 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> beowulf@beowulf.org<br>
<b>Subject:</b> [Beowulf] Beowulf communication type of nodes<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Could one consider a cluster a beowulf if the nodes obtained their instructions from a hard drive, in a specific location? Or would this be another type of cluster? I have a shared drive, and the master node doles out DLL Libraries (Yes,
it's neccisary the system be on windows XP) to the slave nodes, which execute functions in the DLLs. The results are returned as files.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Thanks!<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Nathan<o:p></o:p></p>
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