Re: distributed processing ad multiThreading
Re: distributed processing ad multiThreading
- Subject: Re: distributed processing ad multiThreading
- From: Drew McCormack <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2001 19:17:01 -0700
I've been doing something vaguely similar (real time
distributed/multi-threaded searches for Gamma Ray Bursts on linux
machines), and I beg to differ from some of the opinions previously
expressed. I think your instinct is correct that Objective-C and DO is
the way to go. MPI and PVM are very well suited to a particular class
of problems. In specific, they are usually used for programs where
there is an enormous array of information, but the pieces of the array
are dependent only on local information. The classic example is
weather modelling where there is an enormous number of weather grid
points, but each point only depends on its neighbors. It sounds like
you have a different style of problem, where you have lots of
independent pieces that don't fit into a large array, you are just
limited by processing power. In my experience, DO works beautifully
for this kind of problem.
I don't want to be drawn into any arguments about parallel programming
on a cocoa mailing group, but I think you are wrong about MPI and PVM.
Yes, a lot of programs may use MPI in the way described, but it is
powerful enough to do many types of calculations very efficiently,
including the genetic algorithms being described.
That doesn't mean to say that the DO way is not also good, and may also
be easier to program. One thing you should beware of though with the
master/slave approach suggested is that the master doesn't become a
bottle-neck.
Drew McCormack