A Scalability Metric Based on Beowulf Cluster System

Along with the rapid development of parallel computing technology and the popularity of Beowulf cluster system, the scalability of parallel algorithm-machine combinations, which measures the capacity of a parallel algorithm to effectively utilize an increasing number of processors, becomes more and more important. This ratio of parallel overhead to computation is reviewed in this paper, the merit and deficiencies of this metric are pointed out. Then in order to apply the distributed parallel computation environment based on Beowulf cluster it is improved, obtain the new extensible function which reflects the scalability of distributed parallel systems more directly and precisely when the size of machines and the scale of problems are extending in the environment of Beowulf cluster. Finally, the new metric is used to analyze and prove the scalability of parallel algorithms and Beowulf cluster.