Developing Interactive PVM-based Parallel Programs on Distributed Computing Systems within AVS Framework

Abstract

We discuss techniques in developing interactive Parallel Virtual Machine (PVM) concurrent programs on distributed systems under AVS framework. Using a stock option price modeling application as a case study, we demonstrate a simple, effective and modular approach to coupling network-based concurrent modules into an interactive remote visualization environment. A prototype simulation on-demand system is developed, in which parallel option pricing models locally implemented on two distributed systems, an Ethernet-connected IBM SP1 and a FDDI-based GIGswitch-connected DEC Alpha farm, are coupled with an interactive graphical user interface over a ATM-based wide area network. This integrated networking/visualization framework allows one to use a high level system software approach to combine AVS visualization modules with remote concurrent PVM tasks in fine-grain parallelism