2 0 0 2
INSIDE RESEARCH
Unlocking the grid CONNECTING COMPUTING POWER REPRESENTS FUTURE OF THE INTERNET
hen you plug into an electrical outlet, you may be using electricity generated in the West and shipped through the South before it reaches your office in the Northeast. Such seamless delivery is made possible by a grid system that transports power where it is needed, regardless of where it is generated or how it is being used.
W
Now imagine turning on your office computer and tapping into the computing power of a PC in the office of a colleague at Berkeley, as well as hundreds of other computers across the country with the same ease. Welcome to the world of the computing grid, which researchers say is the next stage of evolution in the power of the Internet. Binghamton University’s Michael Lewis, an assistant professor of computer science, is among those who are developing a distributed computing system that promises to bring together scattered computing resources, inte-
14
grate them, manage them, and take advantage of them as if they were one huge, virtual computer. Lewis’ efforts were recognized this year by the National Science Foundation (NSF), which has awarded him a $395,000 grant from its prestigious Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program for young researchers. Over the next five years, the funds will support Lewis and his research group in their efforts to make grid systems dynamic and automatic. “Grid computing is not a reality yet, but it’s something that lots of people are shooting for,” said Lewis. “This is a very big initiative for open scientific research.” Grid computing has attracted the interest of such computing giants as IBM, Microsoft and Oracle and is the focus of intense research interest at NSF centers and universities because of its huge potential to advance computing capabilities. In effect, the grid will make the Internet an automated computing platform, Lewis said. This “virtual computer” will provide disk storage for users, transparently swap files and optimize users’ collective performance, all with no central administration. This means that users will have access to a host of resources through their personal computers. “The technology is important for research, because with that kind of computing power, we could solve bigger problems faster,” Lewis said. Lewis said grid technology will enable scientists from different parts of the world to collaborate on complex projects that require lots of computing firepower, including things like climate modeling, high-energy physics, genetic