Re: [9fans] grid computing -- high performance?

[andrey mirtchovski <mirtchov@cpsc.ucalgary.ca>]

> I know that people experiment with plan 9 for grid computing,
> since the operating system is well suited for it.  I was wondering
> if it is used for actual high performance work?
> 

It is a common misconception that Grid Computing == HPC, This is not
the case by a _very_ long shot.  The problems Grid people are trying
to solve are of a much more general distributed nature -- how to get
computer A to utilize services available on computer B.

Plan 9's distributed design is what makes it so much better as a
platform than any grid middleware based on legacy UNIX and UNIX-like
OS's.  Inferno solves the same problem somewhat differently, but it
gives you the ability to run on those legacy systems, which is the
hurdle Plan 9 seems to run most often against.

What you're looking for is an answer to the question 'how does Plan 9
do on clusters?'.  Well, it hasn't been tested thoroughly on sizes
which most HPC people would find usable (the number of nodes Ron
frequently mentions) and the fact that 8c consistently generates
slower code than gcc by about 20% isn't much help either.  Apocryphal
evidence suggests that it has been tried on 200+ CPUs on Tera systems,
perhaps others may elaborate on the results from that exercise.  

The benefits you get from Plan 9 on the system administration side may
be compelling for some.

andrey