Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
coordinated groups of computers distributed around the world. Com-
mands sent by the controlling system provide each node with instruc-
tions for its task, allowing a very large pool of computing resources to be
directed toward a specified target.
Volunteer Computing
Beneficial uses of coordinated computing are also possible, such as the
SETI@Home and Folding@Home projects using the Berkeley Open
Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC) model. Users can
download a small application package that operates during system idle
times, performing mathematic data analysis on selected projects of inter-
est. The total processing power of the BOINC projects currently exceeds
the Cray Jaguar's power by three times the total floating-point operations
available to the dedicated supercomputer, but is composed only of per-
sonal computers whose idle-time processing power has been volunteered
to the BOINC projects. Private installations of the BOINC infrastructure
can also be created to allow an organization to leverage its own combined
desktop computing power toward dedicated high-performance comput-
ing functionality.
Grid Computing
Loosely connected groups of computers are often referred to as grid com-
puting solutions. These systems can be dedicated to tasks such as video
rendering in a “render farm” or may be composed of standard desktop
systems whose processing power is only made available when the systems
are idle and have “spare” computing power.
Compute grids combine processing power, while storage grids may
combine part of each system's hard drive capacity into a single large vir-
tual storage pool for use in cloud computing, comparative analysis of
very large data sets, or to allow rapid capture of huge data sets exceed-
ing individual system network throughput. The European Organisation
for Nuclear Research (CERN) produces particle-smashing data in bursts
that exceed the capability for capture using individual systems, and so
employs a form of storage grid to capture short-term data for later transfer
to long-term storage.
