Cluster Computing: Difference between revisions

Almost all the major supercomputers in the world currently (2006) are clusters. Clusters are just a bunch of computers connected together in an ordinary network, but which use special software on top of the O/S (such as "MPI" programs) for a dedicated cause (such as running a simulation of something sciencey). Clusters are cheap to put together, so they are now (in the last 5 years) commonly used in scientific labs or universities all over the world. Another initiative, called "Grid Computing", aims to connect all of these clusters together into one big blob of computing power (sort of like the electricity power grid, which you just plug into to get power on demand!). Ireland has a Grid itself, called [http://www.grid.ie Grid Ireland]. National grids are currently developing, and are also being connected accross countries (there is an [http://eu-datagrid.web.cern.ch/eu-datagrid/ EU Grid], and also a [http://www.teragrid.org/ TeraGrid] in the United States).