Bigtop (computer science)
Encyclopedia
Bigtop is a Microsoft Research
project which gives a framework to create a set of loosely coupled distributed system components. This will result in the creation of a Grid
Operating system
. Bigtop is not expected before the end of this decade. It is not clear whether Bigtop will be integrated into Windows
or launched as a different operating system.
project that focuses on grid resource allocation. It is looking into the use of constraint programming
to this effect.
Microsoft Research
Microsoft Research is the research division of Microsoft created in 1991 for developing various computer science ideas and integrating them into Microsoft products. It currently employs Turing Award winners C.A.R. Hoare, Butler Lampson, and Charles P...
project which gives a framework to create a set of loosely coupled distributed system components. This will result in the creation of a Grid
Grid computing
Grid computing is a term referring to the combination of computer resources from multiple administrative domains to reach a common goal. The grid can be thought of as a distributed system with non-interactive workloads that involve a large number of files...
Operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
. Bigtop is not expected before the end of this decade. It is not clear whether Bigtop will be integrated into Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
or launched as a different operating system.
Architecture
Bigtop consists of three different components which allow jobs to be spread over a grid. They are described below.Highwire
Highwire is a programming language that is aimed to add system level support, and therefore encapsulate implementation details and make it easier, to develop highly parallel and concurrent application which can then be distributed over a grid.Bigparts
Bigparts allow PCs to turn into inexpensive distributed servers for applications. Device-specific applications need not be hosted on the OS of the system hosting the device. Rather it can be hosted by other OSs which are working in parallel to run the grid.Bigwin
Bigwin allows software to be decoupled from a single Operating system. The launching OS makes sure the application adheres to some service contract, and then it can be scheduled over any machine running in the grid, and the software can make use of the OS services provided by the local instance of the OS running on that systemGridline
Gridline is another Microsoft ResearchMicrosoft Research
Microsoft Research is the research division of Microsoft created in 1991 for developing various computer science ideas and integrating them into Microsoft products. It currently employs Turing Award winners C.A.R. Hoare, Butler Lampson, and Charles P...
project that focuses on grid resource allocation. It is looking into the use of constraint programming
Constraint programming
Constraint programming is a programming paradigm wherein relations between variables are stated in the form of constraints. Constraints differ from the common primitives of imperative programming languages in that they do not specify a step or sequence of steps to execute, but rather the properties...
to this effect.