Heterogeneous Network Computing: The Next Generation

Heterogeneous concurrent computing has emerged in recent times as an eeective platform for high performance applications as well as for traditional distributed computing. Performance and functionality that such methodologies can provide, as well as their limitations and potential, have become reasonably well understood. In this paper, we discuss some selected aspects of heterogeneous computing in the context of the PVM system, and describe evolutionary enhancements to the system. These extensions , which involve performance optimization, lightweight processes, and client-server computing, suggest useful directions that the next generation of heterogeneous systems might follow. A prototype design of such a next-generation heterogeneous computing framework is also discussed.