Parallel computing with Linux

Linux is just now making a significant impact on the computing industry, but it has been a powerful tool for computer scientists and computational scientists for a number of years. Aside from the obvious benefits of working with freely-available, reliable, and efficient open source operating system [1], the advent of Beowulf-style cluster computing-pioneered by Donald Becker, Thomas Sterling, et al. [2] at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center-extends the utility of Linux to the realm of high performance parallel computing. Today, these commodity PC-based clusters are cropping up in federal research laboratories, industrial R&D centers, universities, and even small colleges [3, 4]. If a computational problem can be solved in a loosely-coupled distributed memory environment, a Beowulf cluster-or Pile of PCs (POP)-may be the answer; and it "weighs in" at a price point traditional parallel computer manufacturers cannot touch.