A Simple and Efficient Interprocess Communication System for Actually Using a Laboratory Computer Network

An interprocess communication system (IPCS) is being developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to support a network of computers which do data acquisitioin and data processing for fusion experiments. The IPCS permits us to improve system performance by allowing us to move programs to different CPUs for increased efficiency or to add more CPUs for more parallel operation. We discuss motivations, architecture, implementation, usage and results of our experience with the IPCS.