Icecream/icecc is created by SUSE and is based on ideas and code by distcc. Like distcc it takes compile jobs from your build and distributes it to remote machines allowing a parallel build on several machines you've got. But unlike distcc Icecream uses a central server that schedules the compile jobs to the fastest free server and is as this dynamic. This advantage pays off mostly for shared computers, if you're the only user on x machines, you have full control over them anyway.