On 27 Feb 2002, at 10:54, Drew Murray wrote:

> Hello,
> I was wondering if it is possibe to link two computers together
> and have them share processor and memory loads. I have a very large
> atx full tower and it has enough room to put a second computer in.
> I have a 750 duron allready installed and i also have an AT
> motherboard with an amd k62 450 (the one i want to share processor
> loads with. Is there software that can do this? or am i limited to
> just using it as a completely seperate computer with possibly
> sharing of drives over say, a crossover cable and a couple network
> cards?
>                                                             dex

  There are two basic options:

1.  Multi-processing

  This allows a single OS and memory space to be shared between two
CPUs.  Unfortunately, both the CPUs and the *single* motherboard must
support this (I'm not positive that either the Duron or K6-2 does,
and your motherboards don't...), and typically the CPUs have to be
pretty closely matched.  So this really isn't an option with the
components you have.

2.  Clustering

  This allows several distinct machines to share data and/or be
reached via a single IP address, to provide extra server "horsepower"
or redundancy in case of failure.
  There are a couple of different sceanrios, depending on whether the
cluster management takes place directly on the clustered systems, or
on an additional box serving as a "front end" to the cluster.  (if
the management is on the cluster machines, they will typically need
extra hardware such as a second NIC for an intra-cluster LAN
connection, and maybe a shared SCSI bus....

  I have a K6-2 here, sharing a couple of 40GB drives to the LAN.  It
can keep up with that just fine.  I think this is the most practical
scenario with the equipment you have.

David Gillett

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