Dear friends, Thanks. I am overwhelmed. How do you find time despite your hectic schedule to reply to emails so quickly! Regards, Rajib Bandopadhyay
2009/2/24 Robert G. Brown <r...@phy.duke.edu> > On Tue, 24 Feb 2009, Rajib Bandopadhyay wrote: > > Dear friends, >> Can Beowulf with Linux run all the desktop applications? Will they run >> faster? >> > > Let's invert the question. A linux user with a beowulf can run all the > desktop applications -- on their desktop, where they belong. The > desktop in question might or might not reasonably be part of a cluster > computer, beowulf style or not, depending on what that cluster is doing > and intended/designed to do. > > In general, however, they will not run faster. In order for an > application to run faster, it has to be written to run in parallel, and > most desktop applications are not. > > One exception to this is that in one very weak sense any SMP (multicore) > system is a "beowulf" or more generic cluster. Multiple processors can > speed up desktop apps in one way -- by reducing contention for the CPU. > So if you are usually running several programs at once (including many > desktop programs) and they are blocking one another, running them on > many processors "can" speed them up. But this almost never happens. > > rgb > > Regards, >> Rajib Bandopadhyay >> >> >> > Robert G. Brown > http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/<http://www.phy.duke.edu/%7Ergb/> > Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305 > Durham, N.C. 27708-0305 > Phone: 1-919-660-2567 Fax: 919-660-2525 > email:r...@phy.duke.edu<email%3a...@phy.duke.edu> > > > 2009/2/24 Tim Cutts <t...@sanger.ac.uk> > > On 24 Feb 2009, at 6:10 am, Rajib Bandopadhyay wrote: > > Dear friends, >> Can Beowulf with Linux run all the desktop applications? Will they run >> faster? >> > > Beowulf is Linux, so yes, it can run them. Will it be faster? No. > Virtually nothing in the desktop application space can handle parallel > running, and the additional network overhead of having the applications > running on a server and displaying to your local display will most likely > actually make things feel slower. > > Tim > > > -- > The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute is operated by Genome ResearchLimited, > a charity registered in England with number 1021457 and acompany registered > in England with number 2742969, whose registeredoffice is 215 Euston Road, > London, NW1 2BE. >
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