Patent ID: 8060552

Claim:
A system for processing information comprising: a network; and a plurality of hive engines coupled to the network, wherein the plurality of hive engines are configured to self-organize into a cooperative hive for performing computing of client jobs, with the cooperative hive including a plurality of processing regions and a request region, wherein said self-organization includes self-forming the plurality of processing regions and the request region by the plurality of hive engines such that each of the plurality of hive engines belongs to at least one of the plurality of processing regions; and wherein the request region includes a plurality of the plurality of hive engines; wherein each hive engine belonging to the request region includes: means for responding to client requests from clients for processing client jobs; means for assigning client jobs to hive engines of the plurality of hive engines, including means for requesting volunteer hive engines in at least one of the plurality of processing regions to process a client job and receiving volunteer responses; means for receiving processing result information; and means for communicating processing results to the clients based on said processing result information; and wherein each hive engine belonging to one of the plurality of processing regions includes: means for responding to volunteer requests for processing client jobs; means for processing client jobs assigned to it; and means for communicating said processing result information to the hive engine in the request region which assigned the corresponding client job to it.