[Linux-cluster] C-Sharifi

[Ehsan Mousavi]

*C-Sharifi** **Cluster Engine: The Second Success Story on "Kernel-Level
Paradigm" for Distributed Computing Support*


 Contrary to two school of thoughts in providing system software support for
distributed computation that advocate either the development of a whole new
distributed operating system (like Mach), or the development of
library-based or patch-based middleware on top of existing operating systems
(like MPI, Kerrighed and Mosix), *Dr. Mohsen Sharifi
<msharifi at iust.ac.ir>*hypothesized another school of thought as his
thesis in 1986 that believes
all distributed systems software requirements and supports can be and must
be built at the Kernel Level of existing operating systems; requirements
like Ease of Programming, Simplicity, Efficiency, Accessibility, etc which
may be coined as *Usability*. Although the latter belief was hard to
realize, a sample byproduct called DIPC was built purely based on this
thesis and openly announced to the Linux community worldwide in 1993. This
was admired for being able to provide necessary supports for distributed
communication at the Kernel Level of Linux for the first time in the world,
and for providing Ease of Programming as a consequence of being realized at
the Kernel Level. However, it was criticized at the same time as being
inefficient. This did not force the school to trade Ease of Programming for
Efficiency but instead tried hard to achieve efficiency, alongside ease of
programming and simplicity, without defecting the school that advocates the
provision of all needs at the kernel level. The result of this effort is now
manifested in the *C-Sharifi** *Cluster Engine.

*C-Sharifi* is a cost effective distributed system software engine in
support of high performance computing by clusters of off-the-shelf
computers. It is wholly implemented in Kernel, and as a consequence of
following this school, it has Ease of Programming, Ease of Clustering,
Simplicity, and it can be configured to fit as best as possible to the
efficiency requirements of applications that need high performance. It
supports both distributed shared memory and message passing styles, it is
built in Linux, and its cost/performance ratio in some scientific
applications (like meteorology and cryptanalysis) has shown to be far better
than non-kernel-based solutions and engines (like MPI, Kerrighed and Mosix).



 Best Regard

*Leili Mirtaheri

~Ehsan Mousavi

*C-Sharifi* Development Team
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