GridMathematica
Encyclopedia
gridMathematica is a software product sold by Wolfram Research which extends the parallel processing capabilities of its main product Mathematica
.
Standard Mathematica consists of a front end which provides a user interface and a controlling process (the control kernel) which has computational tasks performed by up to four processes. Mathematica calls the processes performing computations "compute kernels". gridMathematica allows additional processes (compute kernels) to be used.
gridMathematica is available in two options.
The "gridMathematica Local" licenses the use of up to 8 compute kernels on a single computer. The
"gridMathematica Server" option provides the ability to use up to 16 compute kernels distributed across more than one computer.
Mathematica manages the interprocess communication such as queueing, virtual shared memory, and failure recovery.
gridMathematica scales to larger grid systems when licenses are purchased. Compute processes can be located on a single multiprocessor computer or distributed over a remote heterogeneous network. 64 bit platforms can be used. The communication between the kernels and the front end uses the Mathlink interface, which is an interface designed to allow external programs to communicate with Mathematica. The communication is over TCP/IP and use SSH
or RSH
for authentication.
With the release of Mathematica 7, the parallel programming tools were redesigned and included in Mathematica, and gridMathematica was redesigned to work directly with Mathematica.
Mathematica
Mathematica is a computational software program used in scientific, engineering, and mathematical fields and other areas of technical computing...
.
Features
gridMathematica increases the number of parallel processes that Mathematica can run at once. Each parallel process applies an additional CPU to a task. A standard Mathematica license allows up to four parallel tasks to run at once. By increasing the number of tasks available, some types of problems can be solved in less time.Standard Mathematica consists of a front end which provides a user interface and a controlling process (the control kernel) which has computational tasks performed by up to four processes. Mathematica calls the processes performing computations "compute kernels". gridMathematica allows additional processes (compute kernels) to be used.
gridMathematica is available in two options.
The "gridMathematica Local" licenses the use of up to 8 compute kernels on a single computer. The
"gridMathematica Server" option provides the ability to use up to 16 compute kernels distributed across more than one computer.
Mathematica manages the interprocess communication such as queueing, virtual shared memory, and failure recovery.
gridMathematica scales to larger grid systems when licenses are purchased. Compute processes can be located on a single multiprocessor computer or distributed over a remote heterogeneous network. 64 bit platforms can be used. The communication between the kernels and the front end uses the Mathlink interface, which is an interface designed to allow external programs to communicate with Mathematica. The communication is over TCP/IP and use SSH
Secure Shell
Secure Shell is a network protocol for secure data communication, remote shell services or command execution and other secure network services between two networked computers that it connects via a secure channel over an insecure network: a server and a client...
or RSH
RSH
RSH may mean:*The NYSE stock symbol for RadioShack*Remote shell, a UNIX command-line utility for remotely executing commands*Restricted shell, a restricted shell environment for Unix*Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns, a locomotive manufacturer...
for authentication.
History
Before the release of Mathematica 7, gridMathematica and the now discontinued Mathematica Personal Grid Edition were the only versions of Mathematica to provide parallel computation. They worked as stand-alone products including Front End and Control Kernels and the Parallel Computing Toolkit developed by Roman Maeder, one of the original authors of Mathematica.With the release of Mathematica 7, the parallel programming tools were redesigned and included in Mathematica, and gridMathematica was redesigned to work directly with Mathematica.
External links
- An interview with Schoeller Porter, Senior Software Engineer at Wolfram Research by Ken Farmer, WinHPC.org, Monday October 30, 2006.
- Exploration of the capabilities of gridMathematica on the Altix ia64 HPC machines, University of QueenslandUniversity of QueenslandThe University of Queensland, also known as UQ, is a public university located in state of Queensland, Australia. Founded in 1909, it is the oldest and largest university in Queensland and the fifth oldest in the nation...
VisLab. - Special Projects: An Evaluation of Modified Newtonian Dynamics by Simulation in a Parallel Computing Environment, Furman UniversityFurman UniversityFurman University is a selective, private, coeducational, liberal arts college in Greenville, South Carolina, United States. Furman is one of the oldest, and more selective private institutions in South Carolina...
Physics Department. - Getting on the Grid, by Jean Thilmany, Mechanical Engineering, 2003.
- a real-time monitor of gridMathematica's usage on the TSUBAME supercomputer in Japan
- online recorded seminar
- King's College London Centre for Financial Grid Computing