The entropia virtual machine for desktop grids

Abstract

Desktop distributed computing allows companies to exploit the idle cycles on pervasive desktop PC systems to increase the available computing power by orders of magnitude (10x -1000x). Applications are submitted, distributed, and run on a grid of desktop PCs. Since the applications may be malformed, or malicious, the key challenges for a desktop grid are how to 1) prevent the distributed computing application from unwarranted access or modification of data and files on the desktop PC, 2) control the distributed computing application's resource usage and behavior as it runs on the desktop PC, and 3) provide protection for the distributed application's program and its data. In this paper we describe the Entropia Virtual Machine, and the solutions it embodies for each of these challenges.

IP over P2P: enabling self-configuring virtual IP networks for grid computing

“…Many representative efforts on Grid computing have focused on aggregating resources to support highthroughput computing, but at the expense of requiring applications to be designed from scratch [20][37] [17][3], constrained to use specialized remote I/O libraries [39] or Grid APIs [22]. IPOP is different as it is directed towards providing a virtual networking platform that enables unmodified applications to run on top of the overlay.…”

Using a desktop grid to support simulation modelling

“…In DCGrid for example, the DGVM is called the Entropia Virtual Machine (EVM) and it wraps interpreters like cmd.exe, perl and Java Virtual Machine to prevent unauthorized access to a computer [2]. Thus, it might be possible to include a CSP installation inside the EVM and offer it as part of an Entropia installation.…”

Grid-enabling FIRST: Speeding Up Simulation Applications Using WinGrid

“…In DCGrid for example, the DGVM is called the Entropia Virtual Machine (EVM) and it wraps interpreters like cmd.exe, perl and Java Virtual Machine to prevent unauthorized access to a computer [26]. Thus, it might be possible to include a CSP installation inside the EVM and offer it as part of an Entropia installation.…”