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The application of the resources of many
networked computers to a particular task. Hailed by some as " the internet's
next big thing", grid computing is particularly well-suited to the cracking
of scientific or technical problems requiring massive amounts of computing
power. By farming out parts of a problem to hundreds or even thousands of
computers, researchers can take advantage of unused processing power on idle
machines and thus quickly complete tasks which might take months or years on
a single, dedicated machine.
The first
well-known application of grid computing was
SETI@HOME, which enlisted the help of internet users in
analysing radio telescope data as part of the search for extraterrestrial
life. The popularity of the seti
project has prompted many other organisations to follow suit, and
programs now exist in which grids are deployed to help design new drugs,
diagnose illnesses, crack encryption algorithms, model the
consequences of environmental disasters and even simulate the universe's Big
Bang. Some companies, notably ibm, now sell commercial software with
built-in grid computing capabilities. |
