Computer grids promise leap in computing power
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) — If the next big thing in computers, the grid, comes true, war will know no boundaries.
SourceVirtual war, that is.
A grid is a kind of hypernetwork that links computers and data storage owned by different groups so that they can share computing power. By comparison, today's Internet allows independent users to trade data, not computer resources.
If computer owners would agree on how to share their machines in a kind of hypernetwork, and the computers, disk drives, and parts could talk with one another, that would give all those involved more computers to draw upon.
Ideally, if they are linked well enough, then the individual computers melt into a bigger picture.
To David Levine, that sounds like a perfect world for computer games. He is the chief executive of start-up Butterfly.net, which is developing a grid for online computer gamers.
"If there is a large-scale war, a campaign could be going on across server boundaries," he enthuses. Right now, each powerful server computer handles a few thousand players, but the players cannot leap among machines.
"I can't interact with the other quarter million people who are playing," Levine says. If his project works, grid technology will unleash bigger and better fights.
Grids are serious business outside the gaming world, although it may be one of the first to use the technology to make money.
"I absolutely believe (the) grid engine will be the time machine of the 21st century," says Wolfgang Gentzsch, grid chief at high-end computer maker Sun Microsystems.
Sun, along with IBM, which works with Butterfly.net, sees the technology as key to its future.
Gentzsch likens it to "time machines" such as the internal combustion and steam engines, which sped up the world when they were introduced. "On the grid, you can do things much, much faster, and you can do things you never were able to do before," he says.
What is a grid?
The definition of a grid is a subject of debate.
"Grid technology is the means of sharing in a reasonable fashion," Ian Foster, co-leader of the Globus project, which is developing grid standards, said in a recent interview.
He suggests a grid coordinates resources owned or controlled by various groups, using open standards, to give a big improvement in computing power.
That could mean universities sharing computers, for instance, or even different groups of users in a company, who jealously guard their machines, beginning to share.
Auto makers, biotechnology companies and others that have lots of work that could be broken up into chunks — such as running many car crash simulations or virtual tests of new drugs — are seen as top candidates for grids.
Plexxikon, a private drug discovery company, has used Sun software to link about 70 microprocessors in a number of different servers, which can all be called upon for any given task.
While Foster might argue that the Plexxikon network is not a true grid since it is controlled by a single company, the Sun software it uses schedules and manages jobs for a number of computers, which is a key grid technology. Sun says its software can keep a processor working 80% to 90% of the time, rather than the 20% normal in small systems.
Plexxikon uses computers to simulate chemical reactions, which take enormous amounts of time to set up. Because the grid software handles farming out jobs, though, it allows engineers to standardize tests that on different systems might run different ways.
"It's only when you have a lot of horsepower and the ability to manage it that you want to automate it," Rick Artis, senior director of informatics, said in an interview.
Foster warns not to expect too much too soon. There are security, accounting and technical issues to be tackled before companies will open up their resources to each other.
But IBM's Dan Powers, vice president of grid computing strategy, sees the technology as a step toward a future where computer power will be used just like electricity or water, as one needs it.
"The longer term vision of what grid is is basically about virtualization of IT (information technology) resources," he said.