Using a global name space for parallel execution of UNIX tools
- Honeywell, Inc., Space and Strategic Avionics Div., Mailstop 924-4A, 13350 U.S. Highway 19S, Clearwater, FL (US)
- Union Coll., Schenectady, NY (USA). Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Although networks of computers have become common, it is still not easy to experiment with their use for distributed computing. One problem is that languages for distributed programming are not yet commonly available, although some exceptions, such as SR, have been developed at universities. Implementing such a language is a major task. This article describes a prototype distributed programming project that provides cheap distributed computing in a form that facilitates experimenting with techniques for shared computations. It is implemented on a network of workstations sharing access to a file server, and can be used wherever several computers are loosely coupled with access to some common resources. It requires only that the network implementation include an application interface that provides basic message-passing facilities. The authors demonstrate its usefulness by describing a parallel version of the UNIX make tool that compiles and links a number of program modules with various dependency relations. They also discuss briefly some other applications.
- OSTI ID:
- 5587743
- Journal Information:
- Communications of the ACM; (USA), Vol. 32:9; ISSN 0001-0782
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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