Cluster computing

A computer cluster is a group of linked computers, working together closely so that in many respects they form a single computer. The components of a cluster are commonly, but not always, connected to each other through fast local area networks. Clusters are usually deployed to improve performance and/or availability over that provided by a single computer, while typically being much more cost-effective than single computers of comparable speed or availability.

Cluster categorizations:
High-availability (HA) clusters
Load-balancing clusters
Compute clusters
Grid computing

The history of cluster computing is best captured by a footnote in Greg Pfister's In Search of Clusters: “Virtually every press release from DEC mentioning clusters says ‘DEC, who invented clusters…’. IBM did not invent them either. Customers invented clusters, as soon as they could not fit all their work on one computer, or needed a backup. The date of the first is unknown, but it would be surprising if it was not in the 1960s, or even late 1950s.

Content links

• Parallel & Cluster Computing Distributed Cartesian Meshes

• About some OS features related to Cluster Computing

• Introduction to cluster computing and Grid environment

• Cluster Computing with Linux

• Cluster Computing

• Cluster Computing Overview

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_cluster