Ninf-G

Ninf-G is a Grid-enabled RPC (remote procedure call) implementation that allows existing libraries to be used as RPC calls rather than local calls.

Given a known Application Programmer Interface (API), Ninf-G can interpose itself between the library and the calling application, allowing the library code to be run on a remote system, potentially in parallel with other systems, while the application runs locally. Neither the library nor the calling application need to be changed. Ninf-G can even be used with precompiled libraries for which the source code is not available.

Ninf-G is most useful in cases where the library provides a computationally-intensive service where the application would benefit if the computation were performed on a remote system. Useful scenarios include: when several computations are needed and can be performed in parallel, or when the user interface allows the user to do other things while the computation is performed. In both of these cases, the calling application would be modified to invoke the library call (using Ninf-G) in a separate process or thread so that the application can proceed while the library call is executed remotely.