Beowulf Cluster Computing with Windows

by Thomas Sterling, C. Gordon Bell (Foreword by), Janusz S. Kowalik (Foreword by)

Beowulf clusters, which exploit mass-market PC hardware and software in conjunction with cost-effective commercial network technology, are becoming the platform for many scientific, engineering, and commercial applications. With growing popularity has come growing complexity. Addressing that complexity, Beowulf Cluster Computing with Linux and Beowulf Cluster Computing with Windows provide system users and administrators with the tools they need to run the most advanced Beowulf clusters. The book is appearing in both Linux and Windows versions in order to reach the entire PC cluster community, which is divided into two distinct camps according to the node operating system. Each book consists of three stand-alone parts. The first provides an introduction to the underlying hardware technology, assembly, and configuration. The second part offers a detailed presentation of the major parallel programming libraries. The third, and largest, part describes software infrastructures and tools for managing cluster resources. This includes some of the most popular of the software packages available for distributed task scheduling, as well as tools for monitoring and administering system resources and user accounts. Approximately 75% of the material in the two books is shared, with the other 25% pertaining to the specific operating system. Most of the chapters include text specific to the operating system. The Linux volume includes a discussion of parallel file systems.

488 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2001

About the author

Dr. Thomas Sterling is a Professor of Computer Science at Louisiana State University, a Faculty Associate at California Institute of Technology, a CSRI Fellow for Sandia National Laboraties, and a Distinguished Visiting Scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He received his Ph.D as a Hertz Fellow from MIT in 1984. He is probably best known as the father of Beowulf clusters and for his research on Petaflops computing architecture. His current research is focused on the ParalleX execution model and its practical implementation in computer architecture and programming methods. Professor Sterling is the co-author of six books and holds six patents. He was awarded the Gordon Bell Prize with collaborators in 1997.