Chapter 1. A NetSolve Overview

Table of Contents
An Introduction to Distributed Computing
What is NetSolve?
Who is the NetSolve User?
The Status of NetSolve

An Introduction to Distributed Computing

The efficient solution of large problems is an ongoing thread of research in scientific computing. An increasingly popular method of solving these types of problems is to harness disparate computational resources and use their aggregate power as if it were contained in a single machine. This mode of using computers that may be distributed in geography, as well as ownership, has been termed Distributed Computing. Some of the major issues concerned with Distributed Computing are resource discovery, resource allocation and resource management, fault-tolerance, security and access control, scalability, flexibility and performance. Various organizations have developed mechanisms that attempt to address these issues, each with their own perspectives of how to resolve them.