XtreemOS: a Linux-based operating system to support next-generation grids

While grids allow organizations to significantly increase their computational power, they can also threaten to be a significant headache. That’s where it can help to have an operating system designed to keep things simple.

“Tools developed for grid use, like the Globus Toolkit, can be demanding and complex,” explains Christine Morin of INRIA Rennes Bretagne Atlantique in France, “especially because they are based on operating systems that are not designed to manage distributed and versatile resources.”

Morin is the scientific coordinator of XtreemOS, a four-year research project that aims to develop a grid operating system to simplify the usage, management and programming of grids.

“XtreemOS will provide native support for virtual organizations,” says Morin. “It is based on Linux and will have three different versions capable of running on single PCs, clusters and mobile devices. It will provide for grids what other operating systems offer for single computers: abstraction from the hardware and secure resource sharing between different users.”
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