Re: [9fans] GNU/Linux/Plan 9 disto

[erik quanstrom <quanstro@labs.coraid.com>]

On Mon Jul 11 13:58:27 EDT 2011, 23hiro@googlemail.com wrote:
> > I'd certainly like something where my local processes migrate from
> > my lower powered laptop including the Window manager migrate to a
> > more powerful CPU when it becomes available and back again when my
> > laptop becomes disconnected,
> >
> Here network latency is too high for such small tasks nowadays solved
> by CPUs.  If you have to wait for your CPU in the 21st century you're
> doing it wrong.

maybe in this particular case.  here are two others where i think
using more powerful cpus and/or networks might make a lot of sense.
- suppose you have a really low powered device that is sometimes docked.

- suppose you want to run fluid dynamics on your phone.  if you want
to make it run faster, you import some resources from a computing resource
like ec2.

it's true that network latency is a huge deal these days.  and even a multicore
machine looks like a bunch of fast cores connected to their l3 and each other
by a slow network.  but if you have a "large enough" packet of work, it can make
sense to move it over to another cpu.  i don't see why given an apropriate defn
of "large enough" this couldn't work across different orders of magnitude.

- erik