uted, the client will perform the follows steps:
Step 1 the client broadcasts to the network;
Step 2 after receiving the broadcasting message from the client, the server sends the response message to the client, which contains the network parameters allocated for the client;
Step 3 the client sends a request to the server for downloading the OS kernel mirror;
Step 4 after receiving the request, the server transmit the requested mirror to the client;
Step 5 the client downloads and loads the mirror, shifting the control to the OS;
hereafter, the client fulfills any computing requirements from user, like a normal PC, the computing work is implemented on the client locally, and the client can acquire resources, such as application programs, data, and documents, from the server.
18. The network computer system according to
a) the client sends a request to the server for downloading an OS-selecting script;
b) the server sends the script to the client;
c) the client executes the script, prompting the user to select an OS; the result of the selection is attached to the request sent by step 3;
19. The network computer system according to
20. The network computer system according to
The invention relates generally to a computing device based on the Transparence Computing paradigm, a client-booting method and a self-organizing method of server clusters thereof.
The last half century has seen the evolution of the computing technology from the mainframe-based host computing stage to the desktop-based network computing stage. Recently, the trend is heading for the pervasive computing which involves various mobile apparatus such as cellular phones, notebooks, PDA, in-vehicle devices, etc.
However, as far as the pervasive computing and other previous computing paradigms, for example, the network computing are concerned, certain OS, corresponding supporting toolkits and applications must be developed and installed before usage. Otherwise, the machine cannot carry on corresponding application computing or run corresponding software systems. This results in current situation in which the requirement of all PC computer indexes (the size of memory and hard-disk, the frequency of CPU, etc.) are higher and higher, and software and OSs are becoming more and more complex and enormous. As for those mobile devices (PDA, cellular phone, etc.) and digital appliances (such as ISDN telephone, etc.) which can only be installed with a small embedded OS because of its limited capability, although they can run some small software, they have difficulties to inter-connect and inter-communicate to the universal computer network system such as the Internet. Moreover, the continuous upgrade of hardware and thereof the corresponding relationship between hardware and software systems makes the software systems become more and more complex, which as a result increases the cost of usage and maintenance. Besides, the abandoned obsolete computers become a new source of garbage and result in new environment pollution.
The Transparence Computing (ZHANG Y. X., “Transparence Computing: concept, architecture and examples”, college journal of electron, VOL 32, NO 12A, 12, 2005) is a computing paradigm in which users are not required to perceive the physical distribution of the computer OS, supporting toolkits and applications, instead, corresponding computing services can be found and accessed within pervasive devices (including various mobile/non-mobile devices and appliances) according to users demand, while these services are persistently stored in servers on distributed networks
Another important difference of the Transparence Computing comparing to other computing paradigms like the client/server is: every computing device of all other computing paradigms must correspond to a given OS. This is not only because that the OS kernel must match with the low-level interface of hardware, but also because that it is a traditional method. However, the Transparence Computing enables the users to choose and use preferred OS and applications on a computing device. And these OS,