Special Features:
MOVING TOWARDS THE WORLD WIDE
GRID
For all their fine points, modern computers are often under-used, idling
between emails with their processing abilities lying fallow.
Some researchers feel that they could instead be working on climate or
materials research, or even in the search for extraterrestrial life.
One group of researchers has proposed setting up a grid to directly link
remote computers whose unused capacity will then be turned to these
projects.
Researchers from the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft have presented applications
for
this technology to industry at the CeBIT computer fair in Hanover. A worldwide
grid that normal users can employ like the internet is still a while away,
however.
"Grid computing is a continuing development of the World Wide Web, the next
generation, so to speak," says Franz-Josef Pfreundt from the Fraunhofer-
Institute for Technology and Economic Mathematics in Kaiserslautern,
Germany.
Until now, it has not been a matter of bringing computers together
worldwide,
as the internet has done, but rather of constructing individual grids for
certain industrial or scientific branches. Such a network allows for access to
different computers within the grid, so that their combined calculating power
and shared data collection can be applied toward solving problems that a
single computer couldn't handle.
This means that mid-sized companies would not need to acquire high-powered
computers, but rather could rent computing capacity, says Alexander Reinefeld
from the Zuse-Institut Berlin.
Experts estimate that even mainframe computers are only used to between
five
and 20 per cent of their capacity on average during the day, a sad statistic
from an economic standpoint.
Scientists at the University of California/Berkeley have been working on a
preliminary version of the grid concept for many years. Their four-million-
person strong computer, with contributors from more than 200 countries, is
helping them to look for extraterrestrial life.
The project, known as SETIhome, uses the computers to detect anomalies
among
radio telescope data from outer space. Instead of having all of the computers
involved each take up a piece of the task, the grid uses all of the computers
to collectively work on the larger solution.
The network is intended to become "intelligent", so that it can
automatically
fill a task by finding a computer that not only has the necessary processing
capacity, but also the correct programs and data for that problem.
"It is intended to be a productive system," says Pfreundt.
Ultimately many programs should be able to compute together and swap data
without the users having to step in at all. The idea is analogous to the power
network.
"There are power plants everywhere, but I, as a user, have no interest in
where the power I need is coming from or how," Pfreundt says.
One of the most broadly developed grid systems is run by NASA, Pfreundt
indicates. When a plane reports a problem, for example, the grid does more
than just comb through its American databases to find information about the
plane. It also starts up calculation programs to try to determine possible
causes for the problem and then calculate out the optimal steering advice to
navigate a safe landing.
The Fraunhofer Resource grid on display at CeBIT is intended to be just
such
an information source. Five different institutes within the Fraunhofer Society
came together to contribute to its making. It offers partners from industry
access to processing power, software packets, and the institute's measurement
data.
Normal users are unlikely ever to use the grid for a task like calculating
the
weather for a specified region during a specific time frame. Pfreundt puts a
damper even on these modest expectations.
"With the World Wide Web, people learned the hard way about the costs of
offering all content for free," Pfreundt says. Big firms are unlikely to offer
their software and processing power for free over a world-wide grid, he
believes.
"It'll be a while before we see a World Wide Grid."
Global Grid Forum: www.gridforum.org/
Fraunhofer Resource Grid: www.fhrg.fhg.de/
SETIhome: setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/
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