Computing power on tap
In the first of two articles, we look at the most ambitious attempt yet to combine millions of computers seamlessly around the world—to make processing power available on demand anywhere, rather like electrical power. The second article examines how firms could benefit from installing mini-grids of their own
IMAGINE that every time you plugged in a toaster, you had to decide which power station should supply the electricity. Worse still, you could select only from those power stations that were built by the company that made the toaster. If the power station chosen happened to be running at full capacity, no toast. Replace the toaster with a personal computer and electrical power with processing power, and this gives a measure of the frustration facing those who dream of distributing large computing problems to dozens, hundreds or even millions of computers via the Internet.
This article appeared in the Technology Quarterly section of the print edition under the headline “Computing power on tap”
From the June 23rd 2001 edition
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