Abstract

In this paper we present a new system for making use of the cycles routinely wasted in local area networks. The Piranha system harnesses these cycles to run explicitly parallel programs. Programs written for Piranha are specializations of Linda master /worker programs[5]. We have used Piranha to run a number of production applications. We present a description of the Piranha prototype, briefly explain the Piranha programming methodology, and explore different types of Piranha algorithms. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under grant number CCR-8657615 and NASA under grant number NGT-50719. 1 Introduction As local area networks spanning large numbers of powerful workstations become commonplace, researchers have come to realize that at most sites, many nodes are idle much of the time. Ideally there would be some way to recapture some of these lost cycles, which grow increasingly formidable in the aggregate as workstations grow more powerful. In the Piranha model...

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