Time Sharing

ASEE Prism, Mar 2007 by Grose, Thomas

COMPUTERS

PURDUE University is the champion of distributed computing. The concept behind distributed computing is taking advantage of the machines' downtime. By assembling a huge network of PCs and supercomputers whose computing power can be tapped when they would otherwise be idle, it enables researchers from around the world to harness all that processing power. To free up its computers when they're not busy, Purdue uses a version of an open-source application called Condor, created 15 years ago by engineers and scientists at the University of WisconsinMadison. Purdue's 4,300 computers spend 45 percent of their time doing work for the Condor pool-an amount of time equal to that spent on their intended purposes. No other university makes so many computers available to Condor. Says Miron Livny, the Wisconsin computer scientist who developed Condor: "Other campuses should follow Purdue's leadership." -TG