Heterogeneous distributed computing-Summary of a minisymposium

As workstations become more powerful and speed and bandwidth of networks increase, parallel computing on a network of heterogeneous systems becomes more attractive. However, heterogeneity makes effective use of resources more difficult. Four presentations in the minisymposium discussed the software assistance required to alleviate these difficulties. The first speaker described overall requirements and issues in heterogeneous distributed computing. The second speaker presented an approach to extending a message-passing interface and providing a full set of tools necessary for heterogeneous distributed computing. The third speaker emphasized the necessity of providing a safer message-passing interface, and the last speaker described the status of tools that manage resources in a heterogeneous environment.