[Beowulf] [EXTERNAL] Re: Is Crowd Computing the Next Big Thing?

[Benson Muite]

MPI is not likely the best programming model at present for such a 
scenario, because fault tolerance is not great. However, there are 
people running many loosely coupled parallel programs on clusters 
because the computational capacity and storage mechanisms make it 
convenient, even if the interconnect is heavily underutilized. Thus it 
is more a matter of finding appropriate workloads. Many data centers 
often have idle capacity, appropriate preferential pricing policies can 
make use of this - not something HPC community typically considers, but 
something cloud and grid computing people have been working on for a 
while. Comet computer at SDSC is targetting some of these workloads.

On 12/1/19 4:13 AM, Lux, Jim (US 337K) via Beowulf wrote:
> But just think of the challenges of implementing MPI on a network of ephemerally connected cellphones. Or any of the cluster filesystems?  What about a scheduler/queue manager?  The nature of the computing nodes and communication would bring new meaning to the Byzantine General problem.
>
> This is an order of magnitude more complex than a cluster of RPi or Beagles, which, frankly, is a doddle.
>
> (I'm omitting the obligatory "what about a Beowulf cluster of X" comment, since we are, after all, the Beowulf mailing list and it goes without saying.
>
>
> On 11/30/19, 1:38 PM, "Beowulf on behalf of Douglas Eadline" <beowulf-bounces at beowulf.org on behalf of deadline at eadline.org> wrote:
>
>      
>      "Big Thing" as in over-hyped idea: Yes
>      "Big Thing" as in practical use: No
>      
>      --
>      Doug
>      
>      
>      > Seen the below where a company wants to rent your smartphone as a cloud
>      > computing resource. From a few years ago there was a company making space
>      > heaters that contained servers to compute and heat your house.
>      >
>      > Are there any classes of problems that would be monitizeable in a grid
>      > computing environment to make those efforts financially viable?
>      >
>      > Is Crowd Computing the Next Big Thing?
>      > https://www.eejournal.com/article/is-crowd-computing-the-next-big-thing/
>      >
>      > Heating houses with 'nerd power'
>      > https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32816775#<https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32816775>
>      >
>      > Chuck Petras, PE**
>      > Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Inc
>      > Pullman, WA  99163  USA
>      > http://www.selinc.com
>      >
>      > SEL Synchrophasors - A New View of the Power System
>      > <http://synchrophasor.selinc.com>
>      >
>      > Making Electric Power Safer, More Reliable, and More Economical (R)
>      >
>      > ** Registered in Oregon.
>      >
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>      
>      --
>      Doug
>      
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