title: Sputnik: ad hoc distributed computation.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In bioinformatic applications, computationally demanding algorithms are often parallelized to speed up computation. Nevertheless, setting up computational environments for distributed computation is often tedious. Aim of this project were the lightweight ad hoc set up and fault-tolerant computation requiring only a Java runtime, no administrator rights, while utilizing all CPU cores most effectively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The Sputnik framework provides ad hoc distributed computation on the Java Virtual Machine which uses all supplied CPU cores fully. It provides a graphical user interface for deployment setup and a web user interface displaying the current status of current computation jobs. Neither a permanent setup nor administrator privileges are required. We demonstrate the utility of our approach on feature selection of microarray data.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Sputnik framework is available on Github http://github.com/sysbio-bioinf/sputnik under the Eclipse Public License.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  hkestler@fli-leibniz.de or hans.kestler@uni-ulm.de
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
authors.affiliation: Core Unit Medical Systems Biology, Theoretical Computer Science, Ulm University, D-89069 Ulm, Germany and Leibniz Institute for Age Research-Fritz Lipmann Institute and FSU Jena, D-07745 Jena Core Unit Medical Systems Biology, Theoretical Computer Science, Ulm University, D-89069 Ulm, Germany and Leibniz Institute for Age Research-Fritz Lipmann Institute and FSU Jena, D-07745 Jena.
authors.forename: Gunnar
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Völkel
authors.affiliation: Core Unit Medical Systems Biology, Theoretical Computer Science, Ulm University, D-89069 Ulm, Germany and Leibniz Institute for Age Research-Fritz Lipmann Institute and FSU Jena, D-07745 Jena.
authors.forename: Ludwig
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lausser
authors.affiliation: Core Unit Medical Systems Biology, Theoretical Computer Science, Ulm University, D-89069 Ulm, Germany and Leibniz Institute for Age Research-Fritz Lipmann Institute and FSU Jena, D-07745 Jena.
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Schmid
authors.affiliation: Core Unit Medical Systems Biology, Theoretical Computer Science, Ulm University, D-89069 Ulm, Germany and Leibniz Institute for Age Research-Fritz Lipmann Institute and FSU Jena, D-07745 Jena.
authors.forename: Johann M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Kraus
authors.affiliation: Core Unit Medical Systems Biology, Theoretical Computer Science, Ulm University, D-89069 Ulm, Germany and Leibniz Institute for Age Research-Fritz Lipmann Institute and FSU Jena, D-07745 Jena Core Unit Medical Systems Biology, Theoretical Computer Science, Ulm University, D-89069 Ulm, Germany and Leibniz Institute for Age Research-Fritz Lipmann Institute and FSU Jena, D-07745 Jena.
authors.forename: Hans A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Kestler
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000032:analysis*; D003196:Computer Graphics; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006801:Humans; D012984:Software; D014584:User-Computer Interface
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers