The following is available at: http://daugerresearch.com/pr/poochv1.3.html
-- For immediate release --
Pooch Builds on Rendezvous and Multiprocessing
"Plug and Play" Parallel Computing Combines Rendezvous, Multiprocessing,
and Cluster Computing
Huntington Beach, California, USA - October 16, 2002 - Dauger Research,
Inc., has shipped version 1.3 of Pooch, the Parallel OperatiOn and Control
Heuristic application. The latest version of the cluster management
software now enables application writers to take advantage of
multiprocessor Macs and cluster computing using just one API.
Pooch, given the newest "most innovative" award by IEEE Cluster, is
designed to combine powerful, numerically-intensive parallel-computing
clusters with the famed ease-of-use of the Macintosh. It provides the user
interface for the latest incarnation of AppleSeed, a project begun by
physics researchers at UCLA in 1998. For four years and counting, their
software is being used world-wide to transform Macintoshes into
easy-to-use, numerically-intensive parallel computers. Pooch's combination
of flexibility, simplicity, and capability remains unique throughout the
industry.
The latest version can now launch multiple parallel-computing tasks per
node, automatically taking advantage of multiprocessor Macs and OS X's
preemptive multitasking. Applications can therefore take advantage of
parallel computing both across nodes and inside nodes simultaneously using
only one API: Message-Passing Interface. Parallel applications already
written using MPI need no modification to utilize multiprocessor Macs; the
extra processor merely appears to be another node. With MPI and Pooch,
applications can both use multiprocessing and get "outside the box".
In addition, Pooch now uses Rendezvous, supplementing Service Location
Protocol, to perform registration, discovery, and resolution of cluster
nodes over local networks and the Internet. While Rendezvous makes for the
fastest discovery of nodes yet, Pooch retains SLP for compatibility with OS
9 and previous OS X's. This new feature places Pooch among the latest
innovative products to take advantage of new technologies introduced in OS
X Jaguar (10.2).
Updates of Pooch to version 1.3 are shipping to current users with an
active subscription. We highly recommend that our customers upgrade to OS X
10.2.1 for its bug fixes and performance enhancements.
Pooch v1.3 is available for US$175 for the first compute node then US$125
for each node thereafter. Check the Pooch web site for special academic
pricing.
We encourage you to revisit the Dauger Research web site at:
The site features a download version of Pooch, new parallel applications, a
new list of featured users, and full documentation. With a brand-new Pooch
Software Development Kit, a discussion mailing list devoted to parallel
computing, and information about compiling and running code in parallel,
the site makes it easier than ever to write, develop, and run your own
parallel code today.
Pooch requires networked Macintoshes and/or XServe's running OS 9 with
CarbonLib 1.2 or later, OS X 10.2 or later, and/or OS X Server 10.2 or
later with 4 MB of available RAM and 2 MB of disk space.
Dauger Research, Inc., was incorporated and founded by Dr. Dean E. Dauger.
Dr. Dauger is the award-winning author of Atom in a Box and Fresnel
Diffraction Explorer and has co-authored the award-winning Kai's Power
Tools software from 1992 to 1994. After completing his Ph. D. in physics,
he founded Dauger Research, Inc., to bridge the divides between the
scientifically and technically complex and the mainstream by making
high-performance computation and visualization easy to use and accessible
to users.
