A "hypercomputer" is the parallel computer that emerges when one sums the unused cycles over all the computer nodes on a Local Area Network. However, fault-tolerance is a critical issue for longer-lived applications running on typical LANS where node failures are not uncommon. Process checkpoint and restart mechanisms will be developed to allow parallel network computations to proceed even as their constituent parts fail. The resulting system will be a fault-tolerant, extensible, cost effective supercomputer based on low cost, high performance scientific workstations connected via a local area network.
