[Portions from Wikipedia]
Distributed computing is a method of computer processing in which different parts of a program run simultaneously on two or more computers that are communicating with each other over a network. Distributed computing is a type of segmented or parallel computing, but the latter term is most commonly used to refer to processing in which different parts of a program run simultaneously on two or more processors that are part of the same computer. While both types of processing require that a program be segmented—divided into sections that can run simultaneously—distributed computing also requires that the division of the program take into account the different environments on which the different sections of the program will be running. For example, two computers are likely to have different file systems and different hardware components.
An example of distributed computing is BOINC, a framework in which large problems can be divided into many small problems which are distributed to many computers. Later, the small results are reassembled into a larger solution. Continue reading ‘Distributed computing’
