Clustered computer system

• US 8,402,080 B2
• Filed: 05/16/2007
• Issued: 03/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Advanced Cluster Systems, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Advanced Cluster Systems, Inc.
• Inventors: Tannenbaum, Ariela, Tannenbaum, Zvi, Frajka, Tamas, Minor, Bryan M., Westerhoff, John M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Ashok
• Assistant Examiner(s): Desrosiers, Evans
• Application Number:
  US11/749,554
• Publication Number:
  US 20070255782A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,134 Days
• Field of Search: 709201-203, 718101-102
• US Class Current: 709/201
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/509 Offload
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4843 by program, e.g. task dispatcher, supervisor, operating system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5033 considering data affinity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

A clustered computational system comprises a clustered computational engine, a program host, and a queue manager. The clustered computational engine comprises a plurality of clustered computers and is configured to perform computations. The program host stores a plurality of programs that define computations that can be performed by the clustered computational engine and a plurality of inputs to the programs. The queue manager is configured to determine when the program host has stored sufficient inputs to allow the clustered computational engine to perform a computation defined by the program and to schedule the performance of the computation by the clustered computational engine.

Claims

1. A clustered computational system comprising:

a clustered computational engine comprising a plurality of clustered computers that perform computations;

a program host computer that stores, on a computer-accessible storage device, a plurality of programs and a plurality of inputs to the programs, the programs invoke computations that are executed by the clustered computational engine, and each computation defines a set of parameters prescribing input data that the computation must receive to generate output data of the computation and each computation receives input data for each of the parameters in the defined set of parameters and generates output data;

a program hosting component that receives, from at least one remote computer, a selection of one of the stored programs for execution by the program host computer;

an input component that receives, from at least one remote computer, input data to the stored program that is to be executed, the received input data are stored on the computer-accessible storage device of the program host computer;

a web server that receives user selections of computations to be performed on the clustered computational engine, transmits the user selections to the program host computer, and receives results of computations performed by the clustered computational engine; and

a queue manager comprising an automated process that automatically and periodically polls the program host computer in order to determine when the program host computer has stored input data satisfying every one of the defined set of parameters for a computation invoked by the selected program, such that the computation is able to generate output data, and, upon determining that the program host computer has stored said input data, to automatically schedule execution of the computation by the clustered computational engine, such that said scheduling of the execution of the computation by the clustered computational engine is automatically delayed at least until the program host computer has stored input data satisfying every one of the defined set of parameters for a computation invoked by the selected program.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the clustered computational engine comprises at least one computer executing gridMathematica.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the web server also displays the results of computations.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the web server is in communication with a graphics component that assists the web server to display the results in graphical format.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the graphics component also performs computations and the system assigns the graphics component to perform computations that do not require the clustered computational engine.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the graphics component comprises webMathematica.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the input component receives inputs to the stored program at different times.