It is used to search for extraterrestrial life. It helps to detect breast cancer and oil fields. It is tipped to change the way we will work in future.
It is called "grid computing" and is billed as the next phase of the ever-developing information technology revolution.
Called by some the third great leap after the Internet and World Wide Web, grid or distributed computing links hundreds or thousands of computers and could one day provide vast computing power or data storage to companies who pay only for what they consume.
On the Internet, computers hook up to exchange information in all kinds of forms, while on a grid they join forces to accomplish a given task.
A pioneer has been the project called SETIAhome, a never-ending search which began in the 1990s for extraterrestrial signals. The program harnesses idle computers in homes, businesses and universities to sift through data picked up by radiotelescopes.
Life sciences, including earth observation, are already leading applications of grid computing. In Britain, the IBM/Oxford eDiamond project, a part of the government's e-Science initiative, helps doctors detect and treat breast cancer, with five hospitals or screening centers sharing a grid in what experts call a major breakthrough. That number could increase to 92 cancer hospitals across Britain, a potential shot in the arm for the country's National Health Service.
Another IBM/Oxford University project with software groups United Devices and Accelerys along with the European biotech firm EvotechOAI, could use two million computers to develop a new drug against smallpox, a feared bioterror weapon.
"[Grid computing] will change our way of working, it will be a qualitative change," said Guy Wormser, deputy science director at the French nuclear and particle physics institute known as IN2P3.
The institute together with IBM are working with others to link nuclear research centers in Britain, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland, as well as the European Space Agency. To make grids widely available, computer processors, networks, software, diagnostic tools and standards must first be integrated so a company can submit a job and get it done without caring whether that happens in Cape Town, Copenhagen or Kowloon.
IBM has begun to "gridify" a European oil group's information technology sites in Asia, Europe and the US. Seismic research and reservoir simulations are under similar development.
IBM has also provided a bank with a system to calculate its risk position in financial markets every 15 minutes.
The aptly-named Monte Carlo simulation provides an ace in the hole against rivals that can only identify such risk every 12 or 24 hours.
Smaller banks could combine the power of idle workstations, typically used at only 15 percent to 20 percent of their capacity, to build a system that Wormser says might multiply by up to five times the bank's internal resources.
The aerospace and automotive industries are seen as potential grid users as they outsource data-intensive tasks such as design work requiring modeling or simulations.
The French institute IN2P3 needs grid technology to crunch data that will begin pouring in from a nuclear collider at CERN, the European Institute for particle physics in Geneva that created the World Wide Web.
But deputy director Wormser says they want to work with small biotechnology companies to test the system, since drug development and genomic research requires just the kind of powerful, yet flexible service a grid is designed for.
When will it change the way we work?
Not so fast
Gartner Research analyst Roger Fulton said "it's going to be rather longer than everybody would like," in part because companies are currently focused on cutting costs, not on investments.
Sharing vast power and data storage implies risk as well, and Wormser says that while certification authorities will be established and electronic passports issued to users, systems cannot lock out hackers but must work to contain them.
Even projects between well-respected scientific institutes are not immune, since, as he notes: "If you lend your car to a friend he can run it into a wall."
That has not stopped grid technology from plunging into the perilous world of online games, however.
Butterfly.net is said to have up to 300,000 users roaming simultaneously through virtual environments, while the site itself claims it can "support an unlimited number of players within the same game."
PROTECTIONISM: China hopes to help domestic chipmakers gain more market share while preparing local tech companies for the possibility of more US sanctions Beijing is stepping up pressure on Chinese companies to buy locally produced artificial intelligence (AI) chips instead of Nvidia Corp products, part of the nation’s effort to expand its semiconductor industry and counter US sanctions. Chinese regulators have been discouraging companies from purchasing Nvidia’s H20 chips, which are used to develop and run AI models, sources familiar with the matter said. The policy has taken the form of guidance rather than an outright ban, as Beijing wants to avoid handicapping its own AI start-ups and escalating tensions with the US, said the sources, who asked not to be identified because the
Taipei is today suspending its US$2.5 trillion stock market as Super Typhoon Krathon approaches Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rain. The nation is not conducting securities, currency or fixed-income trading, statements from its stock and currency exchanges said. Yesterday, schools and offices were closed in several cities and counties in southern and eastern Taiwan, including in the key industrial port city of Kaohsiung. Taiwan, which started canceling flights, ship sailings and some train services earlier this week, has wind and rain advisories in place for much of the island. It regularly experiences typhoons, and in July shut offices and schools as
FALLING BEHIND: Samsung shares have declined more than 20 percent this year, as the world’s largest chipmaker struggles in key markets and plays catch-up to rival SK Hynix Samsung Electronics Co is laying off workers in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as part of a plan to reduce its global headcount by thousands of jobs, sources familiar with the situation said. The layoffs could affect about 10 percent of its workforces in those markets, although the numbers for each subsidiary might vary, said one of the sources, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. Job cuts are planned for other overseas subsidiaries and could reach 10 percent in certain markets, the source said. The South Korean company has about 147,000 in staff overseas, more than half
Her white-gloved, waistcoated uniform impeccable, 22-year-old Hazuki Okuno boards a bullet train replica to rehearse the strict protocols behind the smooth operation of a Japanese institution turning 60 Tuesday. High-speed Shinkansen trains began running between Tokyo and Osaka on Oct. 1, 1964, heralding a new era for rail travel as Japan grew into an economic superpower after World War II. The service remains integral to the nation’s economy and way of life — so keeping it dazzlingly clean, punctual and accident-free is a serious job. At a 10-story, state-of-the-art staff training center, Okuno shouted from the window and signaled to imaginary colleagues, keeping
RSS