The Parallel Problems Server: A Client-Server Model for Interactive Large Scale Scientific Computation

Abstract

Applying fast scientific computing algorithms to large problems presents a difficult engineering problem. We describe a novel architecture for addressing this problem that uses a robust client-server model for interactive large-scale linear algebra computation.

We discuss competing approaches and demonstrate the relative strengths of our approach. By way of example, we describe MITMatlab, a powerful transparent client interface to the linear algebra server. With MITMatlab, it is now straightforward to implement full-blown algorithms intended to work on very large problems while still using the powerful interactive and visualisation tools that MATLAB provides. We also examine the efficiency of our model by timing selected operations and comparing them to commonly used approaches.