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MAY 27, 2002
SUPERCOMPUTERS were once isolated, expensive systems within the reach of only the cream of the research community, such as national laboratories and rich universities. But all that is changing with the advent of the distributed-computing movement. This allows Internet buffs globally to help researchers sift through mountains of data to solve complex problems. Computing jobs are divided into small parts and farmed them out to ordinary people who have donated unused processing power. One example is the millions of Internet users taking part in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence project, seeking alien life. Researchers record signals from outer space and distribute them to volunteers, who download software which allows their computers to analyse the data and return it for further study. In less than two years, the network has completed more than 570,000 years' worth of calculations. Research institutes are also combining resources by linking high-performance computer systems over the Internet. Singapore is embarking on this with its biomedical grid - a huge information network linking research centres here and abroad. The grid will allow scientists to process huge amounts of information from genetic research. Copyright @ 2002 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved. |