Re: [9fans] Plan9 usage but used to parallel MPI on linux..

[Richard Miller <9fans@hamnavoe.com>]

Quoting from the Plan 9 wiki (whose web interface doesn't seem to
be functioning at present):

> LEVEL 8: RESEARCH AND COMPUTATION GRIDS WITH CUSTOM CONTROL LAYERS AND UNIQUE CAPABILITIES
>
> In its role as a research operating system, the capabilities of Plan
> 9 as a distributed system are often extended by specific projects
> for specific purposes or to match specific hardware. Plan 9 does not
> include any built-in capability for things like task dispatch and
> load balancing between nodes. The Plan 9 approach is to provide the
> cleanest possible set of supporting abstractions for the creation of
> whatever type of high-level clustering you wish to create. Some
> examples of research grids with custom software and capabilities:
>
>  *	The main Bell Labs Murray Hill installation includes additional
> 	software and extensive location specific configuration
>  *	The [Laboratorio de Sistemas | http://lsub.org] and project
> 	leader Francisco J Ballesteros (Nemo) created Plan B and the
> 	Octopus, derived from Plan 9 and Inferno respectively.
>  *	The [XCPU project | http://xcpu.sourceforge.net] is clustering
> 	software for Plan 9 and other operating systems created at the Los
> 	Alamos National Laboratory
>  *	The [Plan 9 on IBM Blue Gene |
> 	http://doc.cat-v.org/plan_9/blue_gene] project utilizes special
> 	purpose tools to let Plan 9 control the architecture of the IBM
> 	Blue Gene L.
>  *	The [ANTS | http://ants.9gridchan.org] Advanced Namespace ToolS
> 	are a 9gridchan project for creating failure-tolerant grids and
> 	persistent LAN/WAN user environments.
>
> These are examples of projects which are built on 9p and the Plan 9
> design and customize or extend the operating system for additional
> clustering, task management, and specific purposes. The flexibility
> of Plan 9 is one of its great virtues. Most Plan 9 users customize
> their setups to a greater or lesser extent with their own scripts or
> changes to the default configuration. Even if you aren't aspiring to
> build a 20-node "Manta Ray" swarm to challenge Nemo's Octopus,
> studying these larger custom systems may help you find useful
> customizations for your own system, and the Plan 9 modular design
> means that some of the software tools used by these projects are
> independently useful.