network 2 pc's to use both as one pc

[stackner]

how do i go about networking in twp pc's together to use both pc's cpu power as one. i do not know what this is called but i know it can be done. i have two networked pc's at home but how to i makle stuff use both cpu's together sorta thing?

[Xylob the Destroyer]

i believe this is known as science-fiction
i don't believe there is any type of network connection that could transfer data as fast as the cpu's would need in order to communicate and work in tandem

[808smokey]

i believe this is known as science-fiction

I know back in the old days (10 years ago) you could take motherboards and "daisy chain" them together via the IDE controllers and increases processing power but now it's pretty much pointless since CPU's and the FSB speeds are astronomical in comparison to the IDE transfer speeds. FSB with DDR2 is now 1600Mhz vs. the 133mhgz of standard IDE connections. I think the serial IDE is at 150mhz but still not even close to the FSB

[redwudz]

Probably what you are asking about is 'parallel computing'. It's a way of linking multiple PCs together for a large computation task. Not something for home use. If you have a few hundred PCs available, it's a inexpensive replacement for a multimillion dollar supercomputer. Here's one explanation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_computing

And this is a simple explanation. It gets very complex.

Do some Google searches for 'parallel computing' and you will see some amazing things done with a PC 'farm' of many computers linked together.

Here's a link to a supercomputer using parallel Mac G5 computers that might show you what is possible. http://www.apple.com/science/profiles/vatech2/

EDIT: a photo of the system.



Composed of 1,100 64-bit dual processor Xserve G5s, System X operates at 12.25 teraflops.

[rallynavvie]

i believe this is known as science-fiction

There isn't any such thing built in to Windows (though I think there was something like it in Win2k Server) but you can write software to support a form of distributed/cluster computing. But this isn't simply adding the power of two computers' processing power, it was a host computer that would "assign" parts of the larger project for client computers to work on before transmitting back to the host. This isn't as helpful for multimedia because of the bandwidth requirements, it's more for database and number-crunching. A good example would be Seti@Home or Folding@Home applications.

[gastorgrab]

Here's a link to a supercomputer using parallel Mac G5 computers that might show you what is possible. http://www.apple.com/science/profiles/vatech2/

Supposedly, this is possible because OSX uses a MACH kernel.........or so i've heard. The closest you can come to a developed, free version for the PC would be Darwin x86, or the HURD project.

Mach kernel - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mach_microkernel

Mach is an operating system kernel developed at Carnegie Mellon University to support operating system research, primarily distributed and parallel computation. It is one of the earliest examples of a microkernel, and still the standard by which similar projects are measured.

--edit--

Maybe this is what he's looking for; Linux Terminal Server Project
.

[redwudz]

It's facinating, at least for me. 12.5 teraflops is just incredible for any computer system. That it can be done with off-the-shelf computers is even more amazing