The Grid

[John Bull]

Just out of interest, what exactly is it? What does it do? Why is it better than the internet?

 

[CrackedCrystal]

Um, not sure what "The Grid" is, but I know what grid computing is.

Grid computing is when you have several computers on a network (most commonly the internet) and you utilize their unused computer cycles in order to run a small piece of a larger program. A perfect example of this is the program SETI@Home. They use idle computers to process signals from space. This gives them more processing power than many supercomputers.

Maybe 'the grid' reffers to one of these programs? Or computers running grid programs?

 

[CornMaster]

Originally posted by CrackedCrystal
.....is when you have several computers on a network (most commonly the internet) and you utilize their unused computer cycles in order to run a small piece of a larger program. A perfect example of this is the program SETI@Home. They use idle computers to process signals from space. This gives them more processing power than many supercomputers.

Isn't that called Distributed Computing/Processing? Never heard it called Grid Computing before.

 

[CrackedCrystal]

Originally posted by CornMaster
Isn't that called Distributed Computing/Processing? Never heard it called Grid Computing before.

I have heard it as both.

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/g/grid_computing.html