PMDOS: a testbed for distributed and parallel algorithms utilizing idle machines in a network

The computing resources offered by a collection of workstations can be enormous. To locate and utilize idle workstations efficiently has been a problem requiring much study. A process migration facility is one such method aimed at better utilization of the vast computing potential that allows the user of a workstation to off-load programs onto idle workstations, thereby providing the user with access to computational resources far beyond that provided by his or her personal workstation. PMDOS: Process Migration on a network of DOS workstations is a distributed processing system comprising a checkpoint/restart mechanism and a process migration mechanism at user level. It was designed and implemented on a network of DOS machines (PCs) to create an environment wherein temporarily unused workstations can be accessed by other users on the network to perform distributed or parallel computations or execute background or non-interactive jobs. An owner of a workstation need not be aware that the machine is being used during idle times; the machine is immediately returned when the owner begins to work again. The system gives good throughput, fault tolerance and efficiency for parallel and distributed applications