Posted on 04/03/2004 3:11:36 PM PST by nuconvert
Hundreds Meet in San Francisco to Create Instant Supercomputer
Apr 3, 2004
By Terence Chea
Associated Press Writer
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Hundreds of area technophiles joined laptops Saturday in an attempt to create a computing force on par with the world's most powerful supercomputers. The experiment organized by researchers at the University of San Francisco was designed to determine whether a gymnasium full of off-the-shelf personal computers networked together can muster enough power to process the most complex research problems.
Organizers hoped to break into the ranks of the world's top 500 supercomputers through the event, which they called "Flashmob Supercomputing."
"Flashmob is about democratizing supercomputing," said John Witchel, a graduate student at USF who codeveloped the concept. "It's about giving supercomputing power to the people so that we can decide how we want supercomputers to be used."
Supercomputers perform highly sophisticated functions, such as predicting weather patterns, modeling biological processes or animating movies. Most are run by government laboratories or big corporations because they are expensive, costing $25 million to $1 billion.
Saturday's flashmob event was a dry run designed to measure how much computing power could be generated, rather than tackle a specific task.
The term "flashmob" comes from the spontaneous Internet-organized gatherings that gained popularity last year. During the events, hundreds of people suddenly appear at a predetermined location, perform a wacky stunt - such as wearing purple hats or spinning in circles - then quickly disperse, leaving bystanders scratching their heads.
Saturday's event was not the first time citizens have pooled their computing power. For example, the SETI(at)home project has created a virtual supercomputer through Internet-connected PCs to search for signs of extraterrestrial life.
Organizers hope the Flashmob concept can eventually be applied to problems requiring high-powered computing such as the study of global warming or AIDS research.
Yeah, well that's San Francisco!
A warped worldview!
Good way to catch a virus.
| Rank | Location | Receipts | Donors/Avg | Freepers/Avg | Monthlies | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Idaho |
|
|
|
|
|
35.00 |
1 |
|
Thanks for donating to Free Republic!
Move your locale up the leaderboard!
Now there's a word Mr.Shakespeare might have launched a few soliloquey. Of course, his detractors would have expressed the Bard as an expression of Flashmob.
In San Francisco this is known as a "dope ring".
A new twist on "daisy chain," innit.
I refuse to make gratuitous jokes about back doors...
Outfits like United Devices and SETI At Home have been using "distributed computing" over the internet for years.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.