Gateway launches grid computing service The service harnesses the power of the 8,000 computers sitting in Gateway stores

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Gateway launches grid computing service
The service harnesses the power of the 8,000 computers sitting in Gateway
stores 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
posted 1:03pm EST Tue Dec 10 2002 - submitted by Rob Hughes

http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2002Dec/gee20021210017704.htm

NEWS
Gateway has teamed up with United Devices and is now offering up for sale
the combined power of the 8,000 computers in Gateway's over 270 locations.
The 8,000 PC grid can operate at more than 14 TFLOPs. That processing power
is comparable to the second fastest supercomputer in the world today, as
noted on the Top 500 Supercomputer list. The only supercomputer to offer
more power is the infamous Earth Simulator in Japan, which can clock in
35.61 teraflops doing certain operations. The next nearest supercomputer
rates at just 7.23 teraflops.


The Gateway Processing On Demand (POD) service runs United Devices' Alliance
MetaProcessor platform. Alliance MetaProcessor is a platform standard
designed to allow easy use of computing cycles across a widely dispersed
grid. Potential clients of the POD service can submit job requests online,
get real-time status updates, and receive results when their jobs are done.
Read more at the press release posted on Yahoo! and Gateway's POD site.



ROB'S OPINION
This is a really neat idea, but I can imagine one potential problem. I am
assuming that all computers at the various Gateway stores will be running
some kind of client software from United Devices that will enable them to
take part in the distributed computing. All of those PCs will have to be
connected somehow or other to the Internet, or at least to the LAN which is
then connected to the Internet. I'm not sure if that was a requirement for
Gateway's computers previously.
If a customer wants to try out a Gateway PC, what happens if it's in the
middle of an intense computation ordered by someone through the Gateway POD
service? Unless the service is designed to halt work upon any interaction
and only resume after some time of inactivity, customers may feel that
Gateway computers are "slow," and perhaps undeservedly so. The other
downsides would be the increased amount of power and AC use in all the
Gateway stores, as they will have to leave all the machines on 24x7.
On the plus side, this is a very neat service to offer, it will surely get
Gateway a lot of PR, and it's a good use of otherwise wasted computing
power. I'm not sure how big the market is for a 14 TFLOP computer service,
or how much companies are willing to pay for such services. Can Gateway make
a few million dollars with this service in a year? If so, it may be
worthwhile.
Who's next? Circuit City, BestBuy, CompUSA, Apple, Sears? We could see a
host of competing retailers jump into this fray if Gateway is successful.
Maybe tech sites like Geek.com would even have volunteer readers get
together to build a massive computing on demand resource--but not targeted
specifically at some of the current distributed computing projects. There's
a lot of interesting possibilities, and most of them point to stiff
competition for Gateway if its endeavor becomes a success.

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