Distributed computing is decentralised and parallel computing, using two or more computers communicating over a network to accomplish a common objective or task. The types of hardware, programming languages, operating systems and other resources may vary drastically. It is similar to computer clustering with the main difference being a wide geographic dispersion of the resources.

Organization

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Organizing the interaction between each computer is of prime importance. In order to be able to use the widest possible range and types of computers, the protocol or communication channel should not contain or use any information that may not be understood by certain machines. Special care must also be taken that messages are indeed delivered correctly and that invalid messages are rejected which would otherwise bring down the system and perhaps the rest of the network.

Another important factor is the ability to send software to another computer in a portable way so that it may execute and interact with the existing network. This may not always be possible or practical when using differing hardware and resources, in which case other methods must be used such as cross-compiling or manually porting this software.

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