# <a name="Distributed_Computing"> Distributed Computing </a>

The [[Mach]] micro kernel was originally designed to run on symetric multi-processing (SMP) systems. Later, it was extended to allow for distributed OS support. A group of workstations with Mach can act as a single powerful SMP machine. Thus, Mach is also called a Single System Image (SSI).

The Mach micro kernel provides a good infrastructure for distributed computing, including thread migration, inter-thread communition (both locally and remotely), load balancing and fault-tolerance. The Hurd, using Mach as a foundation, has great potential for distributed computing. Progress toward distributed kernel designs is proceeding within other projects as well. OpenMosix is a related projects for Linux kernels. You can reach it at:

* <http://www.openmosix.org/>
* <http://openmosix.sourceforge.net/>
* <http://sourceforge.net/projects/openmosix/>

OpenMosix patches specific Linux kernel versions to make them "distributed-enabled". However, since the Linux kernel is monolithic, patches must be updated with each new version of kernel. That can be extremely difficult due to the pace at which Linux kernels are currently developed.

The Hurd architecture is better suited to distributed computing. Due to Hurd's server structure this is much more easily adapted. Efforts continue to evolve it's design not only on the Mach micro kernel but also work continues on a [[Mach/PortToL4]] micro kernel.

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## <a name="Document_history"> Document history </a>

Created.

-- [[Main/LaudneyRen]] - 29 Sep 2002

Various grammatical fixes and tidying up.

-- [[Main/JoachimNilsson]] - 29 Oct 2002

Updated for [[Mach]] web, reworded parts for more direct message. Added L4 link.

-- [[Main/GrantBow]] - 11 Jan 2003