Computers..a slave and master?

[miketu]

I am reaching out to the net here to see if I can help solve an IT problem.

The scenario:

I have a computer which is several years old running several applications. I need to add another application to this machine which happens to be processor intensive and through testing, crashes the unit every time. What I would like to try and accomplish is to run a second CPU with this processor intensive application on it, but make it so the application can be viewed/used etc, on the 1st machine. So in essence the 1st CPU/computer is running typical applications, the processor intensive application is running on a separate cpu/computer, but the application is viewable/useable on the 1st machine. Both computers must be within 20 feet of each other and must use a single monitor, keyboard mouse with without a KVM switch type system. So the application must be sort of virtualized from the 2nd CPU to the first.

I was thinking along the lines of desktop emulation or even better, application emulation. The thought of citrix rolled into my head but I am not sure they have anything that would work. We would have ethernet/usb and serial connections available between the two machines.

Any suggestions?

 

[puttsy]

Look into distributed computing/cluster computing services. You are going to realize it's not really worth the hassle on this small of scale. Distributed computing is what Folding @ Home is. Using multiple processors (machines), using their power, and sending results to the main server. Obviously this is a VERY basic explanation.

Most Citrix offerings only provide a "window" to another machine. You are probabnly thinking about think clients which, basically show the GUI that a server is generating. Emulation is NOT something you want to be looking at to accomplish this. It's for something entirely different. i.e. emulating stuff (like playing N64 games on a PC. The PC is "emulating" the code/hardware of the N64. But inefficiently so.) Emulators are inherently inefficient.

Fun fact: Distributed computeing wes heavily developed and designed for the move "The Titanic". It was developed so they could render the CGI without buying Super Computers...Because CRAY is apparently too expensive for a high budget movie studio.

If you are trying to harness the power of only 2 computers, you are not going to find a 'profitable' way of doing it. This is something that's done when single computers that do tasks are simply not avaliable; not because your too cheap to buy them.

Note: I have looked into doing this multiple times. I had a cluster of Xeon based servers and succeeded...ish. But it's not worth the hassle on small scale. You end up eating way to much resources just getting the data together and working that any gain is negated by the usage. The "server" has to think about what's being input from the client AND process it's own information. THEN it has to 'put them together' in a tangible form for whatever application the data is being used with/by/for.

 

[puttsy]

Look into distributed computing/cluster computing services. You are going to realize it's not really worth the hassle on this small of scale. Distributed computing is what Folding @ Home is. Using multiple processors (machines), using their power, and sending results to the main server. Obviously this is a VERY basic explanation.

Most Citrix offerings only provide a "window" to another machine. You are probabnly thinking about think clients which, basically show the GUI that a server is generating. Emulation is NOT something you want to be looking at to accomplish this. It's for something entirely different. i.e. emulating stuff (like playing N64 games on a PC. The PC is "emulating" the code/hardware of the N64. But inefficiently so.) Emulators are inherently inefficient.

Fun fact: Distributed computeing wes heavily developed and designed for the move "The Titanic". It was developed so they could render the CGI without buying Super Computers...Because CRAY is apparently too expensive for a high budget movie studio.

If you are trying to harness the power of only 2 computers, you are not going to find a 'profitable' way of doing it. This is something that's done when single computers that do tasks are simply not avaliable; not because your too cheap to buy them.

Note: I have looked into doing this multiple times. I had a cluster of Xeon based servers and succeeded...ish. But it's not worth the hassle on small scale. You end up eating way to much resources just getting the data together and working that any gain is negated by the usage. The "server" has to think about what's being input from the client AND process it's own information. THEN it has to 'put them together' in a tangible form for whatever application the data is being used with/by/for.

 

[vigilante212]

You could try running it through a virtual machine that's setup on a local server.

 

[cbag]

couldn't you just do a remote login application to view what is happening on the 2nd computer?

 

[4745454b]

I'm with Cbag. Use logmein or VNC to see whats going on with the second computer.