How does Cougaar compare with Grid Computing?
Grid Computing is a branch of peer-to-peer computing that utilizes spare cycles on distributed machines (i.e. “compute farms”). A classic example is the SETI@Home project. There are many grid architectures (Sun, IBM, OGSA, etc) that offer vastly different capabilities, from lightweight number-crunching engines to enterprise solutions. Cougaar, as a flexable peer-to-peer architecture, could be used as a grid engine. The primary difference between Cougaar and most grid engines is that Cougaar developers often write autonomous, heterogeneous agents instead of anonymous computing clients. A Cougaar-to-OSGA bridge should be possible and would make an interesting project.
