Gridwars Parallel Programming Challenge

Peter_Pork writes "New Scientist has an article about GridWars, a challenging new game that runs on large clusters of computers. Programs fight each other for supremacy in terms of the number of processors they control, and the main point of the contest is to develop better parallel algorithms. It seems a nice idea: have fun while you improve the state-of-the-art in cluster computing. The result of the last contest was somewhat of an upset, since a craftsmanly Russian program defeated a sophisticated genetic algorithm from NASA."

Comments

A strange game.

[mrpuffypants]

The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?

I couldn't resist!

Re:A strange game.

[LiquidCoooled]

and just how would YOU stand up to a piece of frozen waterlogged foam thrown at you at thousands of miles per hour?

Re:A strange game.

[Timesprout]

Personally I would stand in a sort of ducked position

My brain hurts!

[Mikey-San]

A hundred thousand Beowulf jokes just collided in my head . . . What's a geek to do?!

Re:My brain hurts!

[DoorFrame]

You could program them to fight each other for possession of individuals neurons in your brain, then post the joke that's able to hold onto the most territory in your head.

Sound good?

Make Gridwars Open Source!

[Lieutenant_Dan]

I think it would benefit the researchers all of the world, if Gridwars was made available to the Open Source developer community. Their long-term vision and thoroughness would be beneficial to all parties in symbiotic relationship.

The Open Source developer community would be able to enhance Gridwars by ensuring that it would be compile correctly on all iterations of Red Hat, adding Beowulf cluster support, and hot-swap floppy capability. These are functionalities that are required in the corporate and academic world, where 99.999% uptime is almost mandatory. Except for online banking which only required a 67% uptime according to federal law.

Only by publishing their code to the world can be enhance Telegard BBS doors such Global Wars and Tradewars.

Which is nice.

OMG

[The Bungi]

An article where SOVIET RUSSIA *and* beowulf jokes are on topic. What's next? A Natalie Portman interview?

Re:OMG

[Jellybob]

Yeah... it'll be about here newly bought Russian beowulf.

And it'll be posted twice, with the evil bit set on the dupe.

Re:OMG

[Anonymous Coward]

IN SOVIET RUSSIA, a beowulf cluster of Natalie Portman clones imagines about interviewing YOU!

I might be good at this

[Anonymous Coward]

I've often been told my programs require more cpu, allocate more memory, and take more time than any other coder on the team. If I can scale up my special skillz to more than one processor at a time, I might have a chance here.

Re:I might be good at this

[bobbozzo]

So quit using VB!

Next article prediction

[LordOfYourPants]

Scientific American has an article about Hellmouth, a challenging new game created by Junis that runs on large clusters of computers. Sponsorship from SCO looks to be confirmed and celebrities such as Natalie Portman promoting grits are in tow.

Sadly, the death of Stephen King during the game's promotion at E3 and LinuxWorld (where no one showed up) put a damper on things, while in Soviet Russia the people controlled YOU.

Gridwars, the next Rogue-alike

[smarthippy]

Rogue: oh no! a 'C' is chasing my @! majick missle! majick missle! arghhll...

experience

[Tablizer]

The result of the last contest was somewhat of an upset, since a craftsmanly Russian program defeated a sophisticated genetic algorithm from NASA.

Perhaps their virus writing skills give them an edge

Deja vu?

[WegianWarrior]

...the ultimate way to debug their programs - let them compete against other programs in a gladiator-style tournament.

Dont that sound awfully familiar?

Russia won the cold war?

[geeklawyer]

Oh right the
col^Hde war.
phew.

They'll all remember this as how SkyNet started!!!

[ReallyQuietGuy]

They've got to stop it now!