Method and apparatus for dynamic distributed computing over a network

A method performed on a processor contained within a computer system having a primary storage device, a secondary storage device, a display device, and an input/output mechanism which enables a server associated with a collection of servers to dynamically receive and process a task from a client computer wherein the task is in an executable programming language compatible with each of the server computers, the method comprising the steps of:

• unmarshalling parameters and data from a task request into a task, which further comprises the substeps of,
• determining if the types related to the task are available on the server, and
• when the types related to the task are not available on the server, downloading the types onto the server from a location as indicated by the parameters provided by the client;
• to invoking a generic compute method, which is capable of processing all types of tasks, which executes the task and generates results;
• storing results from the executed tasks in a cache if a subsequent task will use the results;
• and
• returning the results from executed task to the client.

A computer readable medium containing instructions for controlling a computer system to perform a method for enabling a client to dynamically distribute to a server in a collection of servers a task developed in a programming language compatible with each of the servers, the method comprising the steps of:

• selecting a server from a plurality of heterogeneous servers to process a task based upon an overall processing load distribution among the collection of servers and specialized computing capabilities of each server;
• marshalling parameters and data into a task request which further comprises:
• determining if code and data types related to the requested task are present on the selected server, and
• downloading the code and related data types onto the selected server when the code or data types are not present on the selected server;
• invoking a generic compute method associated with the selected server which executes the task and further comprises:
• providing the task as a parameter to the generic compute method, and
• indicating to the server that results from a computed task should be stored in a result cache on the selected server for subsequent tasks to use;
• and
• receiving the computed task back from the selected server for further processing on the client.

A computer readable medium containing instructions for controlling a computer system to perform a method for enabling a server associated with a collection of servers to dynamically receive and process a task from a client computer wherein the task is in an executable programming language compatible with each of the servers, the method comprising the steps of:

• unmarshalling parameters and data from a task request into a task, which further comprises:
• determining if types related to the task are available on the server, and
• when the types related to the task are not available on the server, downloading the types onto the server from a location indicated by the parameters provided by the client;
• invoking a generic compute method, which is capable of processing all types of tasks, which executes the task and generates results;
• storing results from the executed tasks in a cache if a subsequent task will use the results;
• and
• returning the results from executed task to the client.