anderson%charming.Berkeley.EDU@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (11/14/90)
The software described below is now available for experimental use. It can be obtained by anonymous FTP from icsi-ftp.Berkeley.EDU in the file pub/dash/aero.tar. It has been tested (but not thoroughly) on Sun 3s and 4s under SunOS 3.5, 4.0 and 4.1, and will need some work to run on other systems. ----------------------- AERO: A UNIX-BASED SYSTEM FOR DISTRIBUTED PARALLEL PROGRAMMING AERO (Asynchronously Executed Remote Operations) is a system for distributed parallel programming on a network of UNIX systems, using large numbers of hosts to work together on a CPU-intensive task. An AERO program is written in C with calls to a runtime library that handles remote process creation, communication, and scheduling. AERO can be used only on hosts whose operating systems include BSD UNIX net- working features (sockets, rsh, etc.). The hosts need not have the same CPU type. AERO uses a ``master/slave'' model: there is a single main process (the master) and a set of ``slave'' processes on other hosts. AERO provides the following features: (1) The master can invoke functions (``worker opera- tions'') that execute on a single slave and return a value to the master. After invoking a worker opera- tion, the master proceeds without waiting for the operation to finish; it must later explicitly ``accept'' the return value of the operation. (2) The master and slave can ``share'' data structures. Only the master is allowed to modify these struc- tures. It must notify the runtime library whenever a shared structure is created or modified. (3) The master can call procedures (``context opera- tions'') that are executed on all slaves and do not return a value. AERO also includes a utility for distribution and com- pilation of the slave program. AERO is available by anonymous FTP from icsi- ftp.Berkeley.EDU in the file pub/dash/aero.tar. If you find bugs in AERO, port it to other versions of UNIX, make enhancements to it, or have questions, please contact me. David Anderson 541 Evans Hall University of California, Berkeley anderson@snow.Berkeley.EDU (415) 642-4979