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DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION
FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY / OCTOBER 6, 2003: VOL. 2 NO. 40
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Special Features:
GRID CONSIDERED NEWEST
BREAKTHROUGH IN CYBERSPACE
Following the invention of the Internet and the World Wide Web, the Grid is
becoming the newest innovation in cyberspace, offering remote power and
services not seen before.
Grid advocates are trumpeting the Grid's power, saying it will be like
having
a personal supercomputer.
A real estate agent showing a house to someone in a different country, or
an
astronomer sharing a telescope with a colleague half way across the world are
just a couple of the Grid's possibilities.
The Grid is part physical -- computers, storage devices, etc., but it also
requires software programs so that users may access different resources from
various locations. Rather than a simple exhange of information, Grid
computing allows computers to work together.
And while the average personal computer user will not likely reap the
direct
benefits of Grid computing, improved and cheaper services may be offered by
companies, public and private, that are linked to the Grid.
Instances of the Grid have been implemented already -- NASA runs an
Information
Power Grid and the National Science Foundation is creating the TeraGrid, which
will link major US computing centers. Grid computing is already being used in
Australia, as well.
PC users who have run peer-to-peer software like Kazaa's or Napster's have
participated in a form of Grid computing without even realizing it.
Many believe that the emerging and growing amount of scientific,
engineering
and commercial data make Grid computing an absolute necessity.
Even though today's computers can process 700,000 times faster than network
connections in 1986, with high end computer speeds approaching a million
trillion bytes per second (an exabyte), computers have trouble keeping up with
what scientists and researchers demand of them. For example, a single high-
resolution brain scan now generates up to three terabytes of data.
By the end of the decade, a huge all-sky survey will be producing about 10
petabytes of astronomical facts each year.
Starting in 2012, a massive atom smasher under construction in Switzerland
will need to distribute exabytes to thousands of physicists around the
globe.
Grid computing's importance is growing into a necessity, rather than an
option -- and not just for scientists.
The retail, marketing, financial, security, entertainment, education and
health care industries are all beginning to notice what Grid computing has to
offer.
Wallk Street firm Charles Schwab uses an IBM Grid computing system to offer
clients real-time advice on their investments.
With extra millions from universities, laboratories and private industry,
the
United States is expected to spend $1 billion to provide a Grid computing
infrastructure.
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