http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/computers_math/distributed_computing/ Distributed computing and computer grids. From supercomputers to computer grids, browse innovations from computer programmers and scientists around the world. en-us Tue, 13 May 2008 07:05:01 EDT Tue, 13 May 2008 07:05:01 EDT 60 http://www.sciencedaily.com/images/logosmall.gif http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/computers_math/distributed_computing/ For more science articles, visit ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080508115809.htm The National Center for Atmospheric Research has taken delivery of a new IBM supercomputer that will advance research into severe weather and the future of Earth's climate. The supercomputer, known as a Power 575 Hydro- Cluster, is the first in a highly energy-efficient class of machines to be shipped anywhere in the world. Fri, 09 May 2008 02:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080508115809.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080506124443.htm Three researchers have proposed an innovative way to improve global climate change predictions by using a supercomputer with low-power embedded microprocessors, an approach that would overcome limitations posed by today's conventional supercomputers. Wed, 07 May 2008 11:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080506124443.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080502133106.htm A team of scientists will expend 22 million computational hours during the next year on one of the world's most powerful supercomputers, simulating an event that takes less than five seconds. This astrophysics work explores how the laws of nature unfold in natural phenomena at unimaginably extreme temperatures and pressures. The Blue Gene/P supercomputer will serve as one of their primary tools for studying exploding stars. Sat, 03 May 2008 20:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080502133106.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080501155234.htm Researchers from HP Labs have proven the existence of what had previously been only theorized as the fourth fundamental circuit element in electrical engineering. This scientific advancement could make it possible to develop computer systems that have memories that do not forget, do not need to be booted up, consume far less power and associate information in a manner similar to that of the human brain. Thu, 01 May 2008 17:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080501155234.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080408132137.htm The same team of astrophysicists that cracked the computer code simulating two black holes crashing and merging together has now, for the first time, caused a three-black-hole collision. Scientists have simulated triplet black holes to test their breakthrough method that, in 2005, merged two of these large mass objects on a supercomputer following Einstein's theory of general relativity. Sat, 12 Apr 2008 14:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080408132137.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080408144820.htm Computer scientists are one step closer to realizing distributed quantum computing. They recently demonstrated one of the basic building blocks for distributed quantum computing using entangled photons generated in optical fibers. Wed, 09 Apr 2008 20:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080408144820.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080407101854.htm Nano-physicists have made a discovery that could change the way data is stored on computers. In the future it will be possible to store data much faster, and with more accuracy. A computer has two equally important elements: computing power and memory. Traditionally, scientists have developed these two elements in parallel. Now computer scientists have made a step towards a new means of data-storage, in which electricity and magnetism are combined in a new transistor concept. Tue, 08 Apr 2008 05:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080407101854.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080318212430.htm Computing grids have helped scientists shed light on how life on earth may have originated. Deep ocean hydrothermal vents have long been suggested as possible sources of biological molecules such as RNA and DNA but it was unclear how they could survive the high temperatures and pressures that occur round these vents. Wed, 19 Mar 2008 11:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080318212430.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080219093009.htm A prototype portable device that will allow people to do business across the Internet on any computer in a trusted manner has been developed Known as a Trust Extension Device, the TED consists of software loaded onto a portable device, such as a USB memory stick or a mobile phone. It is able to minimize the risk associated with performing transactions in untrusted and unknown computing environments. Fri, 22 Feb 2008 11:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080219093009.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080221162405.htm Preparing groundwork for an exascale computer is the mission of the new Institute for Advanced Architectures, launched jointly at Sandia and Oak Ridge national laboratories. An exaflop is a thousand times faster than a petaflop, itself a thousand times faster than a teraflop. Teraflop computers —the first was developed 10 years ago at Sandia — currently are the state of the art. They do trillions of calculations a second. Exaflop computers would perform a million trillion calculations per second. Fri, 22 Feb 2008 05:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080221162405.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080129125429.htm The combined supercomputing power of the UK and US 'national grids' has enabled scientists to simulate the efficacy of an HIV drug in blocking a key protein used by the lethal virus. The method -- an early example of the Virtual Physiological Human in action -- could one day be used to tailor personal drug treatments, for example for HIV patients developing resistance to their drugs. Sat, 02 Feb 2008 20:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080129125429.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080124092550.htm NIST researchers have been awarded 750,000 central processing unit hours on the IBM Blue Gene/P supercomputer at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility. The allocation is one of 55 awards of supercomputer time given in a peer-reviewed competition known as the Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment program. Thu, 24 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080124092550.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080121124809.htm Virtually everyone stands to benefit from the more pervasive use of computer technology. But while adding microchips to more everyday objects can make lives easier – and even save them – the approach creates some unique problems of its own. “Palpable” rather than “ubiquitous” computing promises a solution. “Palpable computing” refers to pervasive computer technology that is also tangible and comprehensible to its users. Wed, 23 Jan 2008 20:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080121124809.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071106174200.htm Canadian researchers will accelerate the war on cancer using a global network of volunteered computer time to tackle some of the world's most complex problems. The World Community Grid has power equivalent to one of the globe's top five fastest supercomputers. Tue, 20 Nov 2007 02:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071106174200.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071031111146.htm Researchers have invented a computer architecture that enables the secure transmission of crucial rescue information to first responders during events such as natural disasters, fires or terrorist attacks. Electrical engineering professor Ruby Lee said the new architecture allows for what she describes as "transient trust." Fri, 02 Nov 2007 14:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071031111146.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071024115244.htm Want to help unravel the mysteries of the universe? A new distributed computing project allows people around the world to participate in cutting-edge cosmology research by donating their unused computing cycles. Fri, 26 Oct 2007 08:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071024115244.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071007211841.htm A new attack against the deadly bird flu virus, harnessing the combined power of more than 40,000 computers across 45 countries to boost the pace of anti-viral drug discovery, has just been launched. Called Enabling Grids for E-sciencE, the computing grid connects ordinary PCs to form a super-sized supercomputer that is being used during this challenge to analyse the potential of more than 500,000 drug-like molecules over the next few weeks. This effort comes as new data released last week shows that the H5N1 bird flu virus can pass through the placenta of pregnant women to the unborn fetus, and can infect organs other than the lungs in adults. A rapid response to any pandemic outbreak of the virus would be essential to its control. Tue, 09 Oct 2007 20:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071007211841.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071008103647.htm A newly developed material could be to computers of the future what silicon is to the computers of today. The material -- a compound made from the elements potassium, niobium and oxygen, along with chromium ions -- could provide a technological breakthrough that leads to the development of new quantum computing technologies. Tue, 09 Oct 2007 17:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071008103647.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070919154819.htm What do video games and seismic explorations have in common? Both require very demanding computer applications that call for the ability to process massive quantities of data rapidly. Using computer technology originally co-designed by IBM for video-game consoles, seismic researchers are employing this extremely fast technology to more effectively target oil reserves. IBM is supporting the UH Mission-Oriented Seismic Research Program with a system that represents a new generation of powerful supercomputers. Mon, 24 Sep 2007 17:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070919154819.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070829090209.htm Computer scientists have designed, implemented, and evaluated a new bandwidth management system for cloud-based applications capable of solving the problem of lack of bandwidth control. The new algorithm enables distributed rate limiters to work together to enforce global bandwidth rate limits, and dynamically shift bandwidth allocations across multiple sites or networks, according to current network demand. Fri, 31 Aug 2007 14:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070829090209.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070816143801.htm By using pulses of light to dramatically accelerate the development of quantum computers, researchers have made strides in technology that could foil national and personal security threats. Fri, 17 Aug 2007 11:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070816143801.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070814102020.htm If efforts now under way by a team of engineers pan out, the age of the nanomechanical computer may be at hand. Instead of relying on solid-state transistors and other electronic components to compute ones and zeroes, such a machine would depend purely on moving parts - gates and pillars and levers and pistons - to create switches, logic gates and memory units, the building blocks of digital computers. Wed, 15 Aug 2007 14:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070814102020.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070810194742.htm Researchers who use the TeraGrid, the nation's most comprehensive and advanced infrastructure for open scientific research, can now leverage the computing resources of a powerful, 2048-processor BlueGene/L system at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Wed, 15 Aug 2007 05:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070810194742.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070810212829.htm The National Science Foundation plans to fund the acquisition and deployment of the world's most powerful "leadership-class" supercomputer, proposed in response to NSF's "Track 1" supercomputing solicitation. This "petascale" system is expected to be able to make arithmetic calculations at a sustained rate in excess of a sizzling 1,000-trillion operations per second (a "petaflop" per second) to help investigators solve some of the world's most challenging science and engineering research problems. Tue, 14 Aug 2007 02:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070810212829.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070806120247.htm Supercomputing-like performance could be available for countless scientific applications through an approach that exploits the power of reconfigurable computing using field-programmable gate array. In a recent demonstration researchers tripled the speed of a popular biomolecular simulation package using standard programming languages on a system offered by SRC Computers. Thu, 09 Aug 2007 14:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070806120247.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070711001310.htm Somewhere in Southern California a large earthquake strikes without warning, and the news media and the public clamor for information about the temblor -- Where was the epicenter? How large was the quake? What areas did it impact? A neew supercomputing system can make a difference. Thu, 12 Jul 2007 11:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070711001310.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070627115149.htm A prototype of what may be the next generation of personal computers has been developed by researchers in the University of Maryland's A. James Clark School of Engineering. Capable of computing speeds 100 times faster than current desktops, the technology is based on parallel processing on a single chip. Thu, 28 Jun 2007 20:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070627115149.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070612105455.htm Scientists have found a new way to control the movement of individual electrons -- they are making them ride the crests of energy waves like surfers. Wed, 13 Jun 2007 05:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070612105455.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070525210924.htm The fastest of the fastest computers - supercomputers used at national research centers, research universities and major corporations - will soon gain even more performance by taking advantage of multicore computing. Despite the promise of almost unimagined computing power, however, even computing experts wonder whether this time the hardware developers have raced too far ahead of many programmers' ability to create software. Sat, 26 May 2007 08:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070525210924.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070521100535.htm Mathematicians and number buffs have their records. And at last, an international team has broken a long-standing one in an impressive feat of calculation. Mathematicians have just reached the end of eleven months of strenuous calculation, churning out the prime factors of a well-known, hard-to-factor number that is a whopping 307 digits long. Mon, 21 May 2007 23:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070521100535.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070518145352.htm The world's largest science experiment, a physics experiment designed to determine the nature of matter, will produce a mountain of data. And because the world's physicists cannot move to the mountain, an army of computer research scientists is preparing to move the mountain to the physicists. Mon, 21 May 2007 14:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070518145352.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070424121804.htm The prototype for a revolutionary new general-purpose computer processor, which has the potential of reaching trillions of calculations per second, has been designed and built by a team of computer scientists. Thu, 26 Apr 2007 08:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070424121804.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070326122004.htm A revolutionary processor package that changes its architecture to adapt to the demands of different computing tasks more than met design expectations in recent trials. Tue, 27 Mar 2007 17:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070326122004.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070319205733.htm The Sony Playstation 3 (PS3), Xbox and Nintendo Wii have captivated a generation of computer gamers with bold graphics and rapid-fire animation. But these high-tech toys can do a lot more than just play games. At North Carolina State University, Dr. Frank Mueller imagined using the power of the new PS3 to create a high-powered computing environment for a fraction of the cost of the supercomputers on the market. Tue, 20 Mar 2007 23:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070319205733.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070319110945.htm New advances in thin film research could theoretically make a hard drive capable of about 155 gigabytes per square centimeter, far beyond the capacity of the iPod in your pocket today. Mon, 19 Mar 2007 17:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070319110945.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/01/070131090602.htm Malaria kills more than one million people each year, most of them young children living in Africa. Now physicists in the UK have shared their computers with biologists from countries including France and Korea in an effort to combat the disease. Using an international computing Grid spanning 27 countries, scientists on the WISDOM project analysed an average of 80,000 possible drug compounds against malaria every hour. Fri, 02 Feb 2007 05:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/01/070131090602.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/12/061222092326.htm Massive quantities of data will soon begin flowing from the largest scientific instrument ever built into an international network of computer centers, including one operated jointly by the University of Chicago and Indiana University. The first phase of the Chicago-Indiana center, formally known as the MidWest Tier 2 Center, is now up and running, crunching test data in preparation for the real thing. Tue, 26 Dec 2006 08:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/12/061222092326.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/12/061213123737.htm Rice University physicist Michael Deem is taking zeolite design into the 21st Century using a combination of supercomputers at the University of Texas at Austin and disused computing cycles from more than 4,300 idling desktop PCs at Purdue University to create a database containing more than 3.4 million atomic formulations of the porous silicate minerals. Zeolites -- there are 50-odd naturally occurring ones and about 180 synthetics -- are heavily used by chemical manufacturers. Mon, 18 Dec 2006 17:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/12/061213123737.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/10/061018150611.htm An intelligent flood monitoring system that could give advance warning of the type of rapid flood that engulfed the UK Cornish village of Boscastle in 2004, is under test in the Yorkshire Dales. The system, which makes use of grid computing, could reduce the cost of flood damage by providing warnings of local flooding in time for people to take pre-emptive action. Thu, 19 Oct 2006 14:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/10/061018150611.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/08/060829081620.htm That new personal computer is small and super fast, boasts gigabytes of memory, boots up instantly, offers a standby mode that consumes no electric power, and yet keeps programs and data instantly available in active memory. Well, maybe not quite yet. But, a rapidly emerging field called spintronics may make such revolutionary new electronic devices a reality. Wed, 30 Aug 2006 05:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/08/060829081620.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/07/060713080012.htm Scientists at The University of Manchester are to build a new type of computer which mimics the complex interactions within the human brain. The aim is to build a computer which mimics how nerve cells in the brain interact in a bid to engineer more 'fault tolerant' electronics. Thu, 13 Jul 2006 08:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/07/060713080012.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/06/060606224636.htm New insights into the structure of space and time, climate modeling, and the design of novel drugs, are but a few of the many research areas that will be transformed by the installation of three supercomputers at the University of Bristol. Thu, 08 Jun 2006 08:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/06/060606224636.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/05/060527094650.htm Today, for many, computer networks are an indispensable infrastructure that interconnects people, places and organisations. But increasingly they are beginning to creak as their complexity grows. Biological systems through years of evolution can offer clues on how to cope, as a research project has demonstrated. Sat, 27 May 2006 02:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/05/060527094650.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/05/060522115113.htm The current decade will probably be known as the dawn of pervasive computing, when PCs were dethroned by technology to embed computers in almost everything. The hardware already exists to add features such as artificial intelligence and wireless connectivity to clothing or cars. Thanks to researchers, software is catching up fast. Mon, 22 May 2006 05:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/05/060522115113.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/05/060510233013.htm Imagine having computer memory so dense that a cubic centimeter contains 12.8 million gigabytes (GB) of information. Ferroelectric materials possess spontaneous and reversible electric dipole moments. Until recently, it was a technological challenge to stabilize ferroelectricity on the nano-scale. This was because the traditional process of screening the charges was not completely effective. Thu, 11 May 2006 08:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/05/060510233013.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/05/060504065526.htm During April, computers in the UK have been working overtime in the fight against avian flu. As part of an international collaboration, computers at eleven UK universities and research labs have put in one hundred thousand hours of time searching for possible drug components against the avian flu virus H5N1. The analysis used a computing Grid, a new network that brings together worldwide computer resources to solve scientific problems. Thu, 04 May 2006 02:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/05/060504065526.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/04/060417131952.htm Just because you don't know much about biology or medicine won't stop you from helping to someday cure diseases like malaria, HIV, or cancer. In fact, all you need is a computer and an Internet connection and you can play a pivotal role in the search for treatments and cures for some of the world's biggest killers. Mon, 17 Apr 2006 11:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/04/060417131952.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/01/060123164133.htm Subtropical diseases lay waste to millions of people each year. In the quest to find a cure scientists are using Grid computing, the major driving force for new approaches towards collaborative large-scale science, to discover new drugs and better understand the diseases. Mon, 23 Jan 2006 08:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/01/060123164133.htm