Viktor K. Decyk, Ph. D., Adjunct Professor of Physics at UCLA, to create a new incarnation of cluster computing. Decyk had the skills and expertise in scientific high-performance and parallel computation, among the very best in the field, while Dauger had the award-winning industry experience in computing and the Macintosh platform, making the two an ideal pair. Decyk and Dauger created AppleSeed in 1998. AppleSeed provided software that could transform a standard network of Macintoshes into the only known general purpose parallel computer running the standard Mac OS. In publications and presentations worldwide, their software was recognized as essential in creating the only parallel cluster computing solution that was easy to set up, maintain, and use. And this work was completed on the side, without official support, by Decyk and Dauger while working on their physics research. Because his funding from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (designated solely for physics research) could only provide his salary, but no computation time, Dauger used Mac clusters exclusively to complete his doctoral dissertation. Macintosh clusters have long had the potential to change the face of parallel computing, but it became clear that Mac clusters could not gain wide acceptance if it was backed by only a pair of underfunded physics researchers. After finishing his doctorate, Dauger created Dauger Research to fulfill many needs, but one of them was to provide official support for such Macintosh clustering software and create the means for parallel computing to be brought out of the realm of the experts and into the mainstream. Bridging these kinds of divides is the primary purpose of Dauger Research. |