Special issue on cluster computing

JOURNALOF SYSTEMS ARCHITECTURE ELSEVIER

Journal of Systems Architecture 44 (1998) 163 168

Guest editorial

Special issue on cluster computing D. Tavangarian l Unirersilv Ol"Rostock, D~y~artment o! Compttler Scie/tce, Albert Eh~steh7 Strahe 21, D-1~¢059 Roslock, Germany

A cluster consists of a collection of individual and independent workstations, interconnected through a local area network (LAN). Concerning recent communication technologies and workstation architectures, computing tasks are defined by terms, e.g. client/server model, network based computing (also parallel computing), cooperative computing, commodity parallel architectures and network of workstations. Regarding these aspects of new terms, technologies and standards should be formed and discussed within a new paradigm: "Cluster Computing". Today's standard communication protocols are the Internet Protocols (TCP, U D P and IP). Examples for basic network services are Remote Procedure Calls (RPCs) and the Network File System (NFS). With these services and protocols as a platform, sophisticated concepts were acquired. Some examples are system management standards, such as the Network Information Service (NIS) and system or service architectures. Some examples of these architectures are the

I Tel.: 49 381 498 33 85: fax: 49 381 498 34 4[): e-mail: tav(a;informatik.uni-rostock.de.

Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) or the C o m m o n Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA). Ongoing innovations are given by the next generation of the Internet Protocol (lPv6) and emerging networking technologies, such as Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) fbr wide area networks (WANs) and Gigabit Ethernet (as an upgrade of the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet and FastEthernet standardst. Research in the area of multimedia internet services have already formed new standards such as the JAVA programming language, the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and the Hypertext M a r k u p Language ( H T M L ) of the World-Wide Web. Network services will become ubiquitous, enabling applications such as on-line interactive systems, video-on-demand, desktop video conferencing and mobile computing environments. Additional applications will arise in the area of virtual reality and intelligent personal information management within, world wide databases. Consequently, new research activities will offer sophisticated concepts to the users in the near future. Besides the connectivity and scalability of workstation clusters as open systems, other important benefits are the computational performance, the uncomplicated use and the high availability

1383-7621/0165-6074/98/$19.00 ~-~ 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved PIIS1 3 8 3 - 7 6 2 1 ( 9 7 ) 0 0 0 3 4 - 9

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Guest editorhd / Journal o/S)'stems Architecture 44 (1998,, 163 108

of workstations. These advantages are combined with adequate system expenses, accomplished by standard system components (microprocessors, harddisks, memories, etc.), widely spread interconnection network technologies and the availability of general purpose software (such as operating systems, compilers, desktop tools). A further area for the application of workstation clusters as distributed memory parallel computing system, is high performance computing. Recent research successfully merged networked, heterogenous computing devices (in a range from networked workstations to parallel supercomputers) into a virtual environment which appears homogenous to its users. Examples are the Parallel Virtual Machine (PVM) message passing system or implementations of the Message Passing Interface (MPI) standard for workstation clusters. To achieve a superior productivity in combination with low cost resources, these systems are efficiently utilized in various high performance applications: like chemistry, computational fluid dynamics, biological and biomedical simulations and large scale digital circuit design. A central disadvantage in this area is the inferior communication performance of workstation clusters compared to the interconnection structures of dedicated parallel computers. In contrast to the optimized communication networks of distributed memory parallel systems, workstation clusters possess a limited communication performance especially for parallel applications. This is predominantly reasoned by the general purpose functionality of a workstation's multiuser/multitasking operating system, the versatility of local area networking technologies, protocols and services as well as the limited bandwidth and high latency of a communication within a cluster. Accordingly, recent research regarding parallel computing in workstation clusters enhances the communication performance of clusters for example through new protocol architectures, programming models, interconnection systems or through

the development of innovative communication structures or models. The contributions of this Special Issue on Cluster Computing emphasizes various imperfections of cluster computing, presenting some new and forceful conceptions to close the gaps. The first paper (A. Polze and M. Malek) presents a novel object-oriented programming model for parallel computing in clusters and its implementation for workstations and personal computers. A new precised and generalized model concerning performance and scalability of cluster computing is given by the authors of the following paper (X. Wu and W. Li). The paper hereafter (G. Hipper and D. Tavangarian) offers an overview regarding contemporary architectural possibilities to enhance the communication performance of clusters for parallel computing. The fourth contribution (H. Eberle) presents a scalable interconnection structure for the realization of a distributed shared memory communication model in a workstation cluster with real-time mechanisms and support for quality of service. The topic of the fifth article is the design and evaluation of an efficient interconnection network for parallel computing with a user-level communication architecture for the reduction of software overhead (Th. M. Warschko, J.M. Blum and W.F. Tichy). Subsequently, the authors of the sixth publication (A. Reinefeld, J. Gehring and M. Brune) introduce an innovative solution for the implementation of a transparent communication within heterogenous message passing environments. The next paper (K.H. Shum) concentrates on an efficient approach of replicating discrete-event simulations which supports to the run-time resource availability of heterogenous workstation clusters. The final contribution (B. Dreier. A. Huber, Th. Ungerer and M. Zahn) completes the collec-

Guest editorial / Journal ~] @'stems Architecture 44 (199,~) 103 10~

tion of papers presented in this special issue with a presentation of a software package that enables users to rent their unused computational capacity or to contract/acquire the computing power of external workstation clusters for high performance parallel applications. I am thankful to the authors for their contributions and also to the reviewers who provide so many useful comments in a very short time. I am also grateful to Professor Ferenc Vajda for his discussions and Mrs. Caputo for her helpful support regarding the organizing of the Special Issue. April 1997 Djamshid Tavangarin

List of the Referees for the J o u r n a l o f S y s t e m s Architecture, Special Issue on Cluster C o m p u t i n g

Prof. Dr. M. Dalcin Friedrich-Alexander-Universitiit Inst. f. Math. Maschinen u. Datenverarb./JMMD Martensstr. 3 91058 Erlangen Germany Dr. H. Biihring FernUniversitfit Hagen FB lnformatik 58084 Hagen Germany Dr. Reinartz Friedrich-Alexander-Universitfit Erlangen-Nfirnberg I M M D VII Martensstr. 3 91058 Erlangen Germany

Prof. Dr. Kurt Geihs

Dr. Shirly Williams

Johann W o l ~ a n g Goethe-Universitfit Frankfurt am Main, Fachbereich lnformatik Postfach I I 19 32, 60054 Frankfurt/M Germany

The University of Reading Dept. of Computer Science Whiteknights, Reading RG6 6AY, England

Prof. Dr. Ben Spaanenburg

Prof. Dr. A. Bode

Groningen University Dept. of Computer Science P.O. Box 800 NL-9700 Groningen

Technische Universitfit Miinchen lnstitut f. Informatik Arcisstr. 21 80290 Mfinchen Germany

Prof. Dr. S. Shoukourian Algorithmic Languages Faculty Dept. of Computer Science and Numerical Mathematics Yerevan State University 375049 Yerevan Armenia

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Prof. Dr. R. Miinner Universit/it Mannheim Fakultfit f. Mathematik u. Informatik 68131 Mannheim Germany

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Guest editorial/Journal o/ Systems Architecture 44 (1998) 163 168

Prof. Dr. C.H. Cap University of Zfirich Dept. of Computer Science Winterthurerstr. 190 CH-8057 Zfirich Switzerland Prof. Dr. E. Maehle Medizinische Universit~it zu L0beck Institut f. Technische lnformatik. Ratzeburger Allee 160 23538 Lfibeck Germany

Prof. Dr. Th. Ungerer Universitfit Karlsruhe Institut f. Rechnerentwurf u. Fehlertoleranz Postfach 6980 Am Zirkel 76128 Karlsruhe, Germany Prof. Dr. P. Behr GMD-First, G13.7 Rudower Chaussee 5 12489 Berlin Germany

Prof. Dr. Ch. Steigner Universit~it Koblenz Rheinau 3-4 56075 Koblenz Germany

Prof. Dr. W. Juling Universitfit Rostock Fachbereich lnformatik Albert-Einstein-Sir. 21 18059 Rostock Germany

Prof. Dr. U. Baumgarten Universitfit Mfinchen FB Informatik ArcisstraBe 2 I, 80290 Mfinchen Germany

Prof. Dr. Bernd Kr/imer FernUniversit/it Hagen FB Elektrotechnik 58084 Hagen Germany

Prof. Dr. F. Kaderali FernUniversitfit Hagen FB Elektrotechnik Kommunikationssysteme Bergischer Ring 100 58084 Hagen Germany

Prof. Dr. H.-G. Hegering Technische Universit/it Miinchen Fakult/~t f. Informatik Arcisstr. 21 80333 Mfinchen Germany

Prof. Dr. A. Sehill Technische Universit~it Dresden Fakultfit ffir Informatik 01062 Dresden Germany

Prof. Dr. G. Hommel Technische Universitfit Berlin Inst. f. Angewandte Informatik Franklinstr. 28/29 10587 Berlin Germany

Guest editorial / Journal oJ Systems Architecture 44 (1998) 163 168

List of the Authors for the Journal o f Systems Architecture, Special Issue on Cluster Computing Andreas Poize, Miroslaw Malek Humboldt-University of Berlin Department of Computer Science Unter den Linden 6 D-10099 Berlin Germany Title: Network Computing with SONIC Xingfu Wu, Wei Li Department of Computer Science Beijing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics Beijing 100083 China Title: Per]brmance Models Jor Scalable Cluster Computing Gunther Hipper, Djamshid Tavanagrian University of Rostock Department of Computer Science Albert-Einstein-Str. 21 D-18059 Rostock Germany Title: Advanced Workstation Cluster Architectures Jor Parallel Computing Hans Eberle Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Institute of Computer Systems CH-8092 Ztirich Switzerland Title: Switcherland." A Scalable Interconnection Structure for Distributed Systems

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Thomas M. Warschko, Joachim M. Blum, Walter F. Tichy University of Karlsruhe Department of Informatics Am Fasanengarten 5 D-76128 Karlsruhe Germany Title: ParaStation." Efficient Parallel Computing by Clusting Workstations, Design and Evaluation Alexander Reinefeld, Joern Gehring, Matthias Brune Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing Fuerstenallee 11 D-33102 Paderborn Germany Title: Communicating Across Parallel MessagePassing Environments Kam Hong Shum Department of Information Systems & Computer Science National University of Singapore Kent Ridge Singapore 119260 Title: Replicating Parallel Simulation on Heterogeneous Clusters Bernd Dreier, Annja Huber, Markus Zahn Huber University of Augsburg Institute of Informatics D-86135 Augsburg Germany Title: Trading computing power with ReGTime

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Guest e,fitorkd / Journal o/ S v s l o n s Architecture 44 (199,~) 163 167?

Djamshid Tavangarian is currently the head of the Institute of Technische lnformatik and chair of Computcr Architecture in the Computer Science Department, at the University of Rostock, Germany. His teaching areas deal with conventional and unconventional computer architectures, distributed and high performance computing in workstation networks, and synthesis and simulation with VHDL. His current research activities include novel workstation cluster architecture, acceleration of applications within workstation clusters, distributed simulation and synthesis of digital circuits and systems, and the usability of modern communication infrastructure for scientific education. He is a member of scientific organizations and of professional and colleaguc activities, he is author, co-author, editor and guest editor of a number of scientific publications. He received his Dipl.-lng. from the Technical University of Berlin and Ph.D. from the University of Dortmund. He was assistant professor at the University of Frankfurt, worked for the Hewlett-Packard Co. and was later a professor at the University of Hagen.