Swift: Fast, Reliable, Loosely Coupled Parallel Computation

A common pattern in scientific computing involves the execution of many tasks that are coupled only in the sense that the output of one may be passed as input to one or more others—for example, as a file, or via a Web Services invocation. While such “loosely coupled” computations can involve large amounts of computation and communication, the concerns of the programmer tend to be different than in traditional high performance computing, being focused on management issues relating to the large numbers of datasets and tasks (and often, the complexities inherent in “messy” data organizations) rather than the optimization of interprocessor communication. To address these concerns, we have developed Swift, a system that combines a novel scripting language called SwiftScript with a powerful runtime system based on CoG Karajan and Falkon to allow for the concise specification, and reliable and efficient execution, of large loosely coupled computations. Swift adopts and adapts ideas...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: IEEESCC
• Authors: Yong Zhao, Mihael Hategan, Ben Clifford, Ian T. Foster, Gregor von Laszewski, Veronika Nefedova, Ioan Raicu, Tiberiu Stef-Praun, Michael Wilde
• Keywords: Applied Computing, CoG Karajan, IEEESCC 2007, Swift, Web Services Invocation