Sharing RAM over the 'net (was Re: Process Migration on Linux -

Svein Erik Brostigen (SveinErik.Brostigen@ksr.okpost.telemax.no)
02 Oct 1997 15:57:48 Z

Recent postings said:
> So why can't you share the memory ?
>
> Something pmap calling pmap on another box, over the network, and so on.
>
> Of course this would be real slow over ethernet, but what about if you
> have a host which has multiple cpu's with dedicated memory for each ?
>
> I think in those sort of instances sharing memory over some sort of
> "network interface" is an interesting idea and process/thread migration
> could be very sexy. But perhaps Linux cannot support that without huge
> rewrites ?

Why not implement a system where you can distribute sub-routines and then execute the
subroutine on a different machine, even a different OS might be possible in some instances,
where the handler takes care of exchanging the information nessecary for the
processes/sub-routines to keep working and to work on results from another
proc/sub-routine?

This, if I am correct, has been done already in some systems. I know I read something about
it way back in time or am I dreaming? :-)

If it would be possible to do this, we would really have "Network Computing".

It would also be nessecary to develop a method to make your computer available to the
pool and have a central to handle the requests and available resources. This could be both
a local and a more global pool.

Best Regards
Svein Erik Brostigen
Special Consultant
Oslo Kommune - KSR, Trondheimsv. 5, N-0560 Oslo, Norway
sveinerik.brostigen@ksr.okpost.telemax.no