The GridBee Web Computing Framework Attila Szarvas BME IK 2012.

Contents What is GridBee? A new computing platform: browsers The GridBee framework – Goals – Technology overview Adapting the new technology – Native Client 29/04/20152BME IK 2012./ 15

Introduction GridBee is a JavaScript library released under the – participate in grid computing with your browser – everything happens in the browser – no plugins or extensions required Intended for joining volunteer grids – BOINC middleware: server side scripts, client side native executables for many platforms 29/04/20153BME IK 2012./ 15

A new grid platform: browsers Huge potential user base Platform and OS independent No installing Easy to use Embeddable into any webpage 29/04/20154BME IK 2012./ 15

A new grid platform: browsers Usage possibility: alternative BOINC client in form of a web application 29/04/20155BME IK 2012./ 15

A new grid platform: requirements Executing workunits in the background High performance Safe code execution Local persistent storage HTTP communication with grid servers 29/04/20156BME IK 2012./ 15

Technology: languages Development language: Haxe – strongly typed, object oriented – compiles into JavaScript Framework language: JavaScript – all major browsers support it without extensions – browsers optimized for its usage: high performance 29/04/20157BME IK 2012./ 15

Technology: job execution Safe execution on a dedicated thread Sandboxing – only message passing is allowed between the main and worker threads The browser’s main thread is not blocked 29/04/20158BME IK 2012./ 15 Web WorkersNative Client

Technology: CORS Cross Origin Resource Sharing – boincserver.com must authorize gridbee.com to access its resources 29/04/20159BME IK 2012./ 15

Technology: Local Storage Workunits may require local persistence to save checkpoint data HTML5 Local Storage provides persistent storage for browsers – data stored as key – value pairs – accessed by JavaScript commands – not sent during HTTP requests unlike cookies 29/04/201510BME IK 2012./ 15

Adopting the new technology Writing computational programs in JavaScript is tiresome Cross-compilation of C, C++ code decreases performance tenfold JavaScript may be suitable for small tasks For existing projects Chrome’s Native Client may be the solution 29/04/201511BME IK 2012./ 15

Native Client Supported by Google Chrome Native Client SDK with a modified gcc toolchain – compile existing C, C++ code into Native Client executables Minimal overhead Safe code execution monitored in runtime 29/04/201512BME IK 2012./ 15

Native Client: Porting BOINC applications GridBee offers a Native Client library for porting existing BOINC applications running in Native Client with minor modifications GridBee Chrome extension automatically running tasks in the background 29/04/201513BME IK 2012./ 15

Information about the GridBee framework Visit our website for more information – Download the source code from GitHub – Download our Chrome extension – Browse the online documentation – Try the working demo 29/04/201514BME IK 2012./ 15

Information about the GridBee framework GridBee has been developed by – Imre Szeberényi (Project Coordinator) – Gábor Molnár (Developer) – Gábor Nyíri (Developer) – Henrik Schnell (Developer) – Attila Szarvas (Developer) – Kálmán Tarnay (Developer) 29/04/201515BME IK 2012./ 15