Parallel Programming

[Serge Aleynikov]

We've done exactily this approach in one of the projects where a large 
computational task was multiplexed between several nodes running C ports 
doing mathematical optimization.  Erlang was used only for splitting 
work load, distribution and gathering results.

I am sure other libraries (like MPI) could have been used, but it took 
very little effort to do parallelization in Erlang/OTP, and C-based code 
was only focused on solving the actual optimization problem.  This 
approach also helped to use different resources concurrently for solving 
mathematical, distributed and integrational problems, with very little 
overlap of responsibilities, which allowed to implement the solution 
impressively quickly.

Regards,

Serge

orbitz@REDACTED wrote:
> Obviously Erlang is not made to do computationally intensive work such 
> as computing primes or what not.  However I was thinking that Erlang 
> obviously makes an excellent framework for doing that kind of work.
> I was thinking one could use erlang to communicate between nodes and 
> then use a port to a fortran program or what not.
> Obviously I doubt I'm the first person to think of this, so has anyone 
> else attempted this or have any suggestions as it if it is a good idea 
> or not?
> 
> Thanks