A distributed computing center software for the efficient use of parallel computer systems

Abstract

Nowadays, Computing systems accessible to researchers with "Grand Challenge" problems consist of a hardware mixture ranging from clusters of workstations to parallel supercomputers. This hardware is available via geographically distributed networks with various communication capabilities. Within this paper the Computing Center Software (CCS) is introduced. This software package is implemented as a message based distributed application by itself. Thus, it is considerable simplified to integrate new MPP systems into an existing environment. Giving the same look and feel when accessing different types of parallel or distributed computer systems will bring the idea of metacomputing close to practice. This paper takes a look behind CCS. The underlying model which uses abstract views for specifying system components and a general purpose Resource Description Language is sketched. We explain how it is possible to support Wide-Area Network access and unstable connection lines. Afterwards, we present the system and vendor independent batch processing facility usable for arbitrary programming environments. A sample user session and first prototype installations complete our work.