MARCH 2005 MAXIMUMPC 3
peer-to-peer networking, a bit like cluster
computing, and also a bit like those baf-
fling business middleware technologies
like CORBA and DCE. In reality, though,
the Grid is so much more than all of
these ever can be.
Like all the best ideas, it’s simple
enough. If you want electricity, you plug
into a power outlet; if you want comput-
ing power, you plug into the Grid. Think
SETI@home, the alien-hunting project
that uses the combined processing
power of tens of thousands of PCs from
across the world to analyze the reams
of data gleaned from scanning space for
communication. It’s a bit like that. But
compared with the Grid, SETI@home is
like playing Counter-Strike by e-mail.
On the geek news site Slashdot.org,
the perennial joke whenever a faster
computer arrives is “imagine a Beowulf
cluster of” whatever had been the fast-
est PC before it. But Beowulf clusters
require identical computers to be wired
together using very low-latency net-
works with all the machines in the same
building. The Grid enables computers
with different hardware architectures,
specifications, and operating systems
to share resources, using network con-
nections of different lengths and speeds
and over much greater distances. Each
Grid node can provide data storage,
processing power, or both. The load is
distributed among nodes by a centralized
server, but the results of the application
can be shared by all nodes, or just one.
If all that sounds a bit woolly, imagine
this: When you start a game (Half-Life
4, say), instead of running the graph-
ics engine entirely on your own PC, the
Grid-enabled program spreads the work-
load evenly among everyone else with
the game. Fast PCs thus help those with
slower machines, PCs in quiet sections of
the game help those rendering busy fire
fights, and PCs left idle help everyone.
Provided there is some incentive scheme
that factors the amount contributed to
the rendering pool by each PC into, say,
a monthly subscription fee paid by each
participant, the result is higher frame
rates and more realistic graphics for
everyone. And all at a fraction of the cost
of upgrading your own hardware when
you need to.
ECONOMY OF SCALE
It may sound familiar, but this isn’t just
another peer-to-peer scheme. Again, con-
sider the parallels with electricity genera-
tion. It is perfectly possible for anyone to
generate their own electricity and sell any
surplus back to the national grid, but most
of us are purely consumers. It’s cheaper
to generate electricity in a few centralized
locations and distribute it to everyone.
More than just the economies of scale,
such a system helps to even out peaks and
troughs of demand, so you need a smaller
margin of overcapacity. Werner Ederer,
IBM’s Program Manager for Grid and
e-Utility Computing, claims that most of
our computing power is currently wasted.
“Take any medium-size organization—a
finance company, a radio station, a mailorder house,” says Ederer; “they all have
their own IT infrastructure and because
their load distribution is not predictable,
they have to keep up to 40 times more
computing power than they need.”
The Grid, per se, doesn’t actually exist
yet. All we have is “grid computing” with
individual organizations setting up their
own localized grids. Some of these setups
are pretty big, though. IBM is building one
in China that will eventually link 200,000
students and researchers at nearly 100 uni-
versities across the country. When phase
one of this project is completed in mid-10 WAYS...
THE GRID WILL CHANGE
YOUR LIFETHE GRID WON’T CHANGE
YOUR LIFEConnecting to the Grid will still
be the most complicated thing
you do with your PC.Doing it wirelessly will still be
harder and less reliable than
being wired.Spammers will still waste
bandwidth trying to sell you
stuff you don’t need.Most of those items will still
involve naked women.There will still be a box with a
keyboard, mouse, and monitor
(we call it a computer), sitting
on your desk.We will continue to need a
CPU to run the OS, as well as
some local storage.You’ll never have enough
RAM.It still won’t seem fast
enough.Microsoft will always find a
way to make money from it.Something even better will
replace it one day.1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10
Online retailers will spend less
on IT, so prices will be lower.New cars, airplanes, and drugs
will be cheaper to produce.Weather forecasting and climate
modeling will be more accurate.Your ISP will automatically back
up your data for you.You won’t pay for Internet
access by the month or by the
byte but by the instruction.Your network card will have a
bigger effect on performance
than your CPU.You’ll be able to upgrade
your PC simply by renting more
power.Your mobile phone will be able
to remotely access the power of
your desktop.Your desktop will be able to
access the power of a super-
computer.You won’t really need a laptop
for mobile computing any-
more.1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
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