On Tue, 24 Feb 2009, Rajib Bandopadhyay wrote:
Dear friends, Can Beowulf with Linux run all the desktop applications? Will they run faster?
Let's invert the question. A linux user with a beowulf can run all the desktop applications -- on their desktop, where they belong. The desktop in question might or might not reasonably be part of a cluster computer, beowulf style or not, depending on what that cluster is doing and intended/designed to do. In general, however, they will not run faster. In order for an application to run faster, it has to be written to run in parallel, and most desktop applications are not. One exception to this is that in one very weak sense any SMP (multicore) system is a "beowulf" or more generic cluster. Multiple processors can speed up desktop apps in one way -- by reducing contention for the CPU. So if you are usually running several programs at once (including many desktop programs) and they are blocking one another, running them on many processors "can" speed them up. But this almost never happens. rgb
Regards, Rajib Bandopadhyay
Robert G. Brown http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/ Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305 Durham, N.C. 27708-0305 Phone: 1-919-660-2567 Fax: 919-660-2525 email:[email protected] _______________________________________________ Beowulf mailing list, [email protected] To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf
