Hi guys.

Is it possible to run a large memory problem on a Beowulf cluster, or
will a severe bottleneck appear at the RAM available for each node? Or
is a Beowulf cluster set up so that it is only the *total* RAM that is
important, and not the RAM per node?

With just 8 variables, the problem uses several hundred megabytes of
RAM upon initialisation. Soon, this drops down to a few hundred
megabytes. At least 32 variables are needed for a quasi-realistic
simulation, ideally: hundreds.

If someone could point me to a parallel computing introduction for
dummy beginners, I would be most grateful. The guides I've found are
either too brief or focus too much on the technical details like
setting it up. Yes, I'm interested in how to set one up at home (for
the heck of it) but I would like to know how the MPI system works, how
jobs get divided, whether a licence for the binary is needed at each
node, etc.

E.g. if N simultaneous independent runs get run on N processors, then
one needs N licences. But if the parallel system focuses on finishing
one task as quickly as possible using all the processors to crunch
through the arithmetic, then only one licence would be needed. All the
other processors should be seeing is arithmetic calls.

Thanks.