Patent ID: 7653907

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a memory; a network interface; and a central processing unit (CPU), as interconnected by at least one bus, said CPU executing a set of instructions stored on said memory to select resources on a network connected to said apparatus via said network interface that are most suitable to execute a parallel processing application, said selection based upon an economic model of supply and cost of supply, wherein said memory stores, for each resource on said network available to participate in said parallel processing application, a vector quantity representing: a capacity; and a current utilization, and wherein said cost of supply is calculated by: Cost ⁡ ( t ) = 1 - ∫ T t 0 ⁢ Supply ⁡ ( τ ) ⁢ ⅆ τ , ⁢ ⁢ where ⁢ ⁢ Supply ( τ ) = capacity - utilization ( τ ) capacity , t 0 =an initial time, T=a sampling period, and τ=t/T.