Marionette

Developed by:
University of California at Berkeley, USA Mark Sullivan and David Anderson

Short Description:
Marionette is an software package for distributed parallel programming in an environment of networked heterogeneous computer systems. It uses a master/slave model in which otherwise sequential application programs can invoke worker operations and context operations asynchronously. The master and slaves also interact through shared data structures that can be modified by the master. Shared data structure and context operation mechanisms allow efficient read-only sharing of data structures by slaves. The Ma rionette run-time system is a heterogeneous RPC package. It also maintains the consistency of shared data structures, recovers transparency from slave failure and assigns operations to slaves. The Marionette includes tools for debugging automated compilat ion of program binaries for multiple architectures and distributing binaries to remote file systems.

Model: client/server, loosely-coupled, heterogeneous
Properties: UNIX-compatible, fault-tolerant
Transparency: failure, location, access
Running on: Sun-3/50
Date: 1989

References:
Mark Sullivan and David Anderson: "Marionette: a System for Parallel Distributed Programming Using a Master/Slave Model". IEEE Procs. of the 9th Int. Conf. on Distributed Computing Systems, pp.181-188, June 1989.