"When Donald Becker introduced the idea of a Beowulf cluster while working at NASA in the early 1990s, he forever changed the face of high-performance computing. Instead of institutions forking out millions of dollars for the latest supercomputer, they now could spend hundreds of thousands and get the same performance. In fact, a quick scan of the TOP500 project's list of the world's fastest supercomputers shows just how far-reaching the concept of computer clusters has become. The emergence of the Beowulf cluster-a computer cluster created from off-the-shelf components and that runs Linux-has had an unintended effect as well. It has captivated the imaginations of computer geeks everywhere, most notably, those who frequent the Slashdot news site..."
