Some research projects on clusters of personal computers

Clusters of personal computers are becoming a viable, low-cost, alternative to traditional high-performance computing platforms as well as to more expensive networks of workstations. This is due in part to the better performance/cost ratio that characterizes personal computer hardware and in part to the outcome of various research projects aimed at producing high-speed communication systems out of off-the-shelf local area network technology. PC clusters are starting to be used for commercial applications as well as in research environments. The paper discusses some international research projects on PC clusters.