Did you own a computer 15 years ago? Can you remember the first site you looked at on the Internet? Do you recall what it was like to work without e-mail? In an amazingly short period of time, computers have become an indispensable part of modern daily life. Whether we are surfing the Web, downloading music (legally, of course), sending digital photos, or posting to blogs, many of us spend a great deal of time at a computer.
Constant advances in technology have made more and more memory available at a lower and lower cost, and as a result, many computers now have more memory than their users actually need. What if there were a free and easy way to combine all of this unused power into a “supercomputer”?
The Global Grid Exchange is exactly that, and West Virginia University has been a key partner in its creation and operation. The Global Grid Exchange is the world’s largest open public grid computing platform. It safely and securely delivers the spare processing power of countless Internet-connected computers to users involved in business, science, and medical research. With access to computer hardware ranging from PCs to mainframes, the Grid can deliver supercomputer power on demand to any desktop computer over the Internet, creating a cost-effective computation infrastructure able to drive research and innovation around the world.
The more computers that are connected, the more powerful the Global Grid Exchange becomes. The more powerful the Grid is, the more research that it can support. WVU is the largest single provider of power to the Grid, donating the idle compute cycles of library and lab computers all across campus. The University is also actively using the Global Grid Exchange to advance its own leading-edge research efforts.
The Grid is helping WVU researchers in dozens of ways. For example, Associate Professor of Computer Science Dr. Matt Valenti is testing “turbo codes” across the Grid. Turbo codes enable reliable communications at extremely low power, making them suitable for modes ranging from cellular and Wi-Fi to interplanetary communications.
Dr. William Petros of the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center is also using the Grid, but for an entirely different type of research. Dr. Petros is performing data analyses on how chemotherapy drugs are metabolized in breast cancer patients, a field known as pharmacokinetics. In his latest study, Dr. Petros was able to complete in a matter of hours research that would have taken more than two weeks to finish on a single machine.
WVU’s diverse use of the Global Grid Exchange is, in large part, possible because of the University’s active participation in its growth and development. WVU has provided valuable feedback on the Grid’s performance in a variety of complex, real-life computing scenarios.
The University has also incorporated a two-week segment of Global Grid Exchange-related instruction into its Cluster Computing and Parallel Programming course, which was first offered in spring 2005. In an effort to advance student learning and help inspire new research initiatives, WVU also encouraged students to participate in a Grid-related student project competition made possible by the WVU NASA Space Grant Consortium.
Creating a Better Future
The Global Grid Exchange is one component of an overall initiative by Rep. Alan B. Mollohan (D-W.Va.) aimed at strengthening the competitiveness of companies in West Virginia and the United States by creating and using high-tech processes. The Grid is a critical part of West Virginia’s efforts to strengthen and diversify its economic base. More research and development leads to new product innovations, and companies form around new product innovations. That means jobs for West Virginians.
Your Computer Can Make a Difference
Gartner, a leading provider of research and analysis on the global information technology industry, includes grid computing on its list of top ten technologies for 2006. Through its participation in the Global Grid Exchange, WVU is not only preparing students to work with this exciting technology, it is supporting the research and scientific discoveries that will be responsible for world-shaping innovations.
If you’d like to join WVU in its efforts, why not donate the power of your PC? If you have high-speed Internet access and are willing to share your computer’s spare processing power, simply download and install a compute engine. This engine never interferes with your ability to use your own computer. Just move your mouse or press a key and it disappears until the next time your computer is idle. To donate your machine’s excess power, go to www.GlobalGridExchange.com and visit the provider page.
Perhaps a few years from now you can fondly remember your contribution to the formation of a new type of “supercomputing.”