Is it possible to have a server to offload usage whenever necessary?

Question

Is it possible to have a central high powered machine, so that users from different lower powered computers, can use the resources of this machine whenever necessary?

1. Like, if I wanted 2GB of Ram from it, or 1GB sometime else, is it possible to use it like that? And also, other resources like CPU and graphics cards.

2. Also, to run separate ttys of that central server just by using input and output devices from a different place?

3. Can it also be used to play high-end games, from a less resourceful computer?

Being a Linux user, I'd like HOWTOs based on Linux. Thanks!

Answer 1

Basically, no you can't. To use the RAM on another machine would require enormous bandwidth which in practical terms mean that you would have the machine in the same cabinet. Add several users to that and you basically reinvented the shared computer.

It is possible to play advanced games on a remote computer, and there are even commercial services for this, but they just stream you the resulting video,your computer is just running a specialized client that sends mouse/keyboard actions and display the video, everything else happens on the remote computer, there is no sharing of computing resources.