A User-PC Computing System as Ultralow-cost Computation Platform for Small Groups

Abstract

Recently, a personal computer (PC) has rapidly evolved the computing ability due to the highest CPU clock, more CPU cores, and the larger memory. Then, the collection of idling CPU cycles in conventional PCs of the members in a group such as a university laboratory significantly enhances the level of parallel computing platform with very small costs. This low-cost computation environment is of great interest in schools, especially in developing countries. To realize this concept, in this paper, we propose a User-PC Computing (UPC) system based on the master-worker model. First, we present the design and implementation of the UPC master using Linux and for the UPC worker with both Linux and Windows. Then, because the job scheduling takes a key role in determining the overall computing performance, we present an efficient job scheduling method using performance measurement results of worker PCs by benchmark programs, in addition to a conventional round-robin one. We verify the effectiveness of our proposed UPC system through experiments using several benchmark and application programs.