Writing parallel programs for distributed multiuser computing environments is a di cult task. The Distributed object migration environment (Dome) addresses three major issues of parallel computing in an architecture independent manner: ease of programming, dynamic load balancing, and fault tolerance. Dome programmers, with modest e ort, can write parallel programs that are automatically distributed over a heterogeneous network, dynamically load balanced as the program runs, and able to survive compute node and network failures. This paper provides the motivation for and an overview of Dome, including a preliminary performance evaluation of dynamic load balancing for distributed vectors. Dome programs are shorter and easier to write than the equivalent programs written with message passing primitives. The performance overhead of Dome is characterized, and it is shown that this overhead can be recouped by dynamic load balancing in imbalanced systems. Finally, we show that a parallel program can be made failure resilient through Dome's architecture independent checkpoint and restart mechanisms. Currently visiting CMU from Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brasil, with support provided by CNPq.
Dome is an object based parallel programming environment for heterogeneous distributed networks of machines. This paper gives a brief overview of Dome. We show that Dome programs are easy to write. A description of the load balancing performed in Dome is presented along with performance measurements on a cluster of DEC Alpha workstations connected by a DEC Gigaswitch. A Dome program is compared with a sequential version and one written in PVM. We also present an overview of architecture independent checkpoint and restart in Dome.
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