Distributed Computing

Question

Distributed Computing

In: Technology

Answer 1

Ok, so let’s say I’m a scientist, and I want to do some really big math problem.

I might start, by writing a program to solve it on one CPU. But it takes too long.

So I split the problem up into multiple threads – that’s multiple independent sequences of work that can run in parallel – and run it on all the CPU’s in one computer. But that still takes a while.

But, there are other scientists, and people who like my work and want to help me, who have their own CPU’s lying around doing nothing. More CPU’s than I could ever dream of owning. And these people would gladly use their CPU’s to help me.

So, I write a program, to split the problem up into smaller pieces, send them over the internet, and collect the results. And I write another program, to gather small pieces of the work, do it, and send the results back over the internet. And these people download the program and run it.

And this way, I get the work done faster than I could have otherwise, and the people whose CPU’s I borrowed are just happy their computers could do something useful.

That’s what distributed computing is – splitting up some computational work, sending the little pieces of work over the internet, and collecting the results.