IP: more AIC

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
>
> [Note:  This item comes from reader Mike Cheponis.  This is the British 
> take on the IBM AIC story I posted last week.  DLH]
>
> Friday, 19 October, 2001, 07:40 GMT 08:40 UK
>
> Bringing computers to life
> [IBM is working on ways to help the net become more self-aware]
> Soon the net could be healing itself
> <http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1606000/1606862.stm>
>
> IBM has unveiled an ambitious initiative to develop technologies that 
> share the basic biological abilities of living organisms.
>
> Senior researchers at the company said the growing complexity of computers 
> and networks demands that the technology does a better job of maintaining 
> and healing itself.
>
> The researchers warn that without these efforts there is a danger that 
> networks will soon become unmanageable.
>
> The company is backing its initiative with its own research program, a 
> series of grants to universities and efforts to make other computer 
> companies sign up.
>
> Grand challenge
>
> This week IBM is sending 75,000 copies of a manifesto written by Paul 
> Horn, senior vice president of IBM Research, that details the aims of its 
> Autonomic Computing initiative.
>
> Mr Horn warns that humans are losing the battle to manage the increasing 
> complexity of computer systems and networks.
>
> This complexity is only going to increase as computer technology shrinks 
> and finds its way into ever more devices.
>
> If the current rates of the expansion of digital technology are 
> maintained, soon there would not be enough people to keep the world's 
> computer systems running, he said.
>
> He called finding ways of handling this complexity the next "grand 
> challenge" facing the technology industry.
>
> In the manifesto he said: "The growing complexity of the [technology] 
> infrastructure threatens to undermine the very benefits information 
> technology aims to provide."
>
> Ideally future networks should resemble the autonomic nervous system which 
> maintains and monitors many basic bodily functions without conscious help.
>
> Global power
>
> The autonomic nervous system maintains blood sugar and oxygen levels and 
> monitors temperature. It adjusts the body's heating and cooling systems to 
> keep body temperature hovering around 37C.
>
> What is needed, argued Mr Horn, are computer systems that do a much better 
> job of configuring themselves, can work around disruptions, heal any 
> damage they suffer or fight off potential problems.
>
> IBM is planning its own research programs to create technologies that can 
> turn relatively dumb networks into smarter alternatives.
>
> It is also planning to spend millions over the next five years funding 50 
> research projects at universities to take on the complex challenge.
>
> The likely outcome of the project is a series of software standards that 
> define how to build software or hardware that has these more biological 
> properties.
>
> IBM is working closely with the Global Grid Forum. This industry body is 
> driving efforts to turn the disparate computing and research capabilities 
> of the world's science labs into a shared pool of resources that anyone 
> can plug into.
>
> This effort is already driving the creation of software that hides the 
> individual quirks of individual machines and instruments behind common 
> interfaces.


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