Patent ID: 7693931

Claim:
A manager for use in a system of grid computing comprising a processor implemented as hardware and programmatically structured to define a computing task based on data received by said processor, said processor further programmatically structured to assign a portion of said task to each of a plurality of clients connected to said manager via a network, each of said plurality of clients configured to produce a result by performing a computation using said portion, said processor further programmatically structured to approximate said result of performing said computation, where the step of approximating is at least one of: using the initial data that was passed to the failing node as the approximate result or using the last received previously cycled result from a failing node that has successfully cycled more than once as the approximate result, using said portion when said client fails to return said result to said manager, wherein said processor is configured to determine a client failure to return said results based upon at least one condition selected from a group of conditions consisting of: a receipt of a message indicating that the client is no longer connected to the network, a receipt of a message from the client indicating that said result is not forthcoming, and an expiration of a previously defined time delay for said client to provide said result.