Newsgroups: comp.parallel.pvm
From: crispin@csd.uwo.ca (Crispin Cowan)
Subject: Re: PVM under Windows?
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
Date: 24 Aug 1994 16:14:22 GMT
Message-ID: <33frku$4cd@falcon.ccs.uwo.ca>

In article <P7VRBA9Q@math.fu-berlin.de>,
Thomas Wolff <wolff@inf.fu-berlin.de> wrote:
>bwh@inf.rl.ac.uk (Brian Henderson) writes:
>: [PVM on Windows is useless because Windows doesn't do pre-emptive
multitasking]
>You are mixing up parallel with distributed computing. Although often 
>usefully linked together, it's not the same at all. So I think a 
>system for distribution and communication (which PVM is) can still 

Actually, I think Thomas is mixing up parallel and distributed
computing.  PVM is a parallel programming system, layered on top of a
distributed system (TCP/IP).  It's in the name:  PVM == Parallel
Virtual Machine.  PVM provides the primitives one expects to see in a
MPP environment (message passing, array packing, etc.).  PVM does not
provide many of the facilities needed for a distributed programming
environment:  resource brokers, multi-user capabilities, security,
authentication, the ability for an outside task to add itself to the
system, etc.

Crispin
-----
Crispin Cowan, CS PhD student, searching for a research position
University of Western Ontario
Phyz-mail:  Middlesex College, MC28-C, London, Ontario, N6A 5B7
E-mail:     crispin@csd.uwo.ca          Voice:  519-661-3342
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