Re: IDL and Beowolf ?

[ronn kling <ronn(at)rlkling.com>]

in article GGxou8.KBJ.A.ebony@news.trentu.ca, dmarshall@ivory.trentu.ca at
dmarshall@ivory.trentu.ca wrote on 7/23/01 12:08 PM:

> I just finished reading The Do-It-Yourself Supercomputer by William W.
> Hargrove, Forrest M. Hoffman and Thomas Sterling in this months Scientific
> American
> http://www.sciam.com/2001/0801issue/0801hargrove.html
> And wondered if anyone had any thoughts/experience with running IDL
> applications on such a cluster.
> 
> Dave.
Dave,

I have set up an interface between IDL and PVM (the Parallel Virtual
Machine). You can see a blurb about it at
http://www.kilvarock.com/software/idltopvm.htm

I have used it for some massive runs that would have been impossible without
the parallel processing. The way I have the code set up you can either run
an IDL save file as a "slave" program or a C or Fortran program  as a slave.
If you stay completely with IDL it is even a little easier than regular PVM
as IDL always knows the data type and size so you don't have to explicitly
state these like you would in a regular C (or Fortra) PVM program.

If you are interested in learning more send me an email.

-Ronn


--
Ronn Kling
KRS, inc.
email: ronn@rlkling.com
"Application Development with IDL"  programming book updated for IDL5.4!
"Calling C from IDL, Using DLM's to extend your IDL code" NEW BOOK!
Shareware and Freeware at: http://www.rlkling.com/