Javelin: Parallel computing on the internet

Java offers the basic infrastructure needed to integrate computers connecte d to the Internet into a seamless distributed computational resource: an in frastructure for running coarse-grained parallel applications on numerous, anonymous machines. First, we sketch such a resource's essential technical properties. Then, we present a prototype of Javelin, an infrastructure for global computing. The system is based on Internet software that is interope rable, increasingly secure, and ubiquitous: Java-enabled Web technology. Ea se of participation is seen as a. key property for such a resource to reali ze the vision of a multiprocessing environment comprising thousands of comp uters. Javelin's architecture and implementation require participants to ha ve access to only a Java-enabled Web browser. Experimental results are give n in the form of a Mersenne Prime application and a ray-tracing application that run on a heterogeneous network of several parallel machines, workstat ions, and PCs. Two key areas of current research, fault-tolerance and scala bility, are subsequently explored briefly. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. A ll rights reserved.