Apple Xgrid Technology Preview 2 is Out

and available for download. Yesterday, Apple's Xgrid Product Manager, Ernest Prabhakar, sent the following note to Apple's Xgrid list:

Hello everyone,

In recognition of the overwhelmingly positive response to the initial
release of Xgrid back on January 6th, we are pleased to announce the
immediate availability of Xgrid Technology Preview 2. This improves
on Xgrid's already breakthrough ease-of-use by adding the most
requested features:
* an 'xgrid' command-line utility (including man page)
* support for MPI jobs using UCLA's LnxMPI library
* a brand-new, comprehensive Xgrid Guide.pdf document
as well as numerous bug fixes.

To download either the full Xgrid install, or just the new Xgrid Guide,
please visit <www.apple.com/acg/xgrid/>. The Release Notes are also
included below, for your convenience. <attachment deleted>

Xgrid is still only a Technology Preview, but it has already made
substantial progress thanks to your input. Please continue to file
bugs <bugreport.apple.com> and feature requests
<mailto:xgrid@apple.com> -- we're listening.

Sincerely,

Ernest Prabhakar

Xgrid is Apple's software for creating a simple, inexpensive cluster among Macs on the same network. Things like scientific simulation studies that require many separate runs to look at various scenarios or the effects of uncertainty are great candidates for Xgrid running overnight on many idle Macs on a network in an office building.