Cluster computing with Java

Java could be a new lingua franca for uniting disparate computing worlds. In this article, the authors explore two approaches for Java´s support of cluster computing - as single and multiple virtual machines - and evaluate the performance of the two approaches via a set of benchmark applications. Java has emerged as a possible solution to unite Web, cluster, multiprocessor, and uniprocessor computing. Its support for multithreaded computation and remote method invocation, improvements in its compilation technology (which have made it competitive with C++ for many applications), and Java-based solutions for building Web services, peer-to-peer applications, and so on, have driven its emergence. In this article, we explore Java´s support for using a cluster of computers interconnected via a high-performance network to execute single high-performance applications.