Imagine…
a lot of computers, let’s say several million. They can include desktop PCs and workstations, mainframes and supercomputers, and also data vaults and instruments such as meteorological sensors and telescopes.
Imagine these computers are all over the world and belong to many different people (students, doctors, secretaries…) and institutions (companies, universities, hospitals…).
And imagine that you connect all of these computers to the Internet.
So far you have imagined nothing new: this is pretty much what the world looks like today.
But imagine if all of these computers could be connected to act as a single, huge and super-powerful computer. Wow! Now that really is different. This huge, sprawling, global computer is what many people dream “The Grid” will be.
Who stands behind this?
CERN has a reputation for being at the forefront of networking technology – “where the Web was born” is the lab’s motto. When it comes to Grid technology, this is particularly true: CERN is leading some of the most ambitious Grid projects in the world.
