Grid Computes 420 Years Worth of Data in 4 Months

Da Massive writes with a ComputerWorld article about a grid computing approach to the malaria disease. By running the problem across 5,000 computer for a total of four months, the WISDOM project analyzed some 80,000 drug compounds every hour. The search for new drug compounds is normally a time-intensive process, but the grid approach did the work of 420 years of computation in just 16 weeks. Individuals in over 25 countries participated. " All computers ran open source grid software, gLite, which allowed them to access central grid storage elements which were installed on Linux machines located in several countries worldwide. Besides being collected and saved in storage elements, data was also analyzed separately with meaningful results stored in a relational database. The database was installed on a separate Linux machine, to allow scientists to more easily analyze and select useful compounds." Are there any other 'big picture' problems out there you think would benefit from the grid approach?

Excellent

[President_Camacho]

The search for new drug compounds is normally a time-intensive process, but the grid approach did the work of 420 years of computation in just 16 weeks.

Cue the stoners in 5, 4, 3, 2....

years of computation?

[convolvatron]

sorry, i missed that definition. what is that in library of congresses per human hair?

I've got one...

[cultrhetor]

how abouutt a drog thet maks slshdaughters spel gooder and youze gooderest grammer?

Here's one

[realmolo]

Would it be possible to use all that computing power to make an electronic voting machine that works?

Oh wait! How about a voting machine based on "quantum computing"! Then we wouldn't even have to vote, the machine would already know who won.

Goddamn liberal qubits! Bunch of flip-floppers!

Stupid conservative qubits! They think that there is ONE and ONLY ONE answer for everything!

From the Article

[imstanny]

Up to 5,000 computers were used at any one time, generating a total of 2,000GB of useful data.

Based on the size of useful data GRID collected from 5,000+ machines and the quantity of pornography on my computer, they are claiming that: porn != useful.
...GRID computing; you disappoint me.

Mathematicians and computers scientists unite!

[cowscows]

In an amazing breakthrough which will no doubt have profound implications on Moore's Law, it has been discovered that multiple computers can accomplish in a shorter time what would take much longer on a single computer! Researchers will next launch a study to see how much faster 6000 video ipods working simultaneously can play through all the songs on the iTMS compared to a single first generation ipod shuffle.

Re:Here's one

[iminplaya]

Then we wouldn't even have to vote, the machine would already know who won.

That's a no-go. Reading the result will change them. Kinda like what happened in Florida :-) Proof that you can do quantum processing with pencil and paper without all these electronical contraptions.

Re:Excellent

[Varun Soundararajan]

The Answer to The Ultimate Question Of Life, the Universe, and Everything == 42 Malarial Drug Research == 420 420 is 419 + 1 (419 - remember Nigeria?) Malarial Drug Research/Answer to Ultimate question = 420/42 = 10 remove 0 from 10 :-) and it is 1 , subtract 1 from 420 and it is 419..... Something is really really fishy...

Re:Excellent

[Varun Soundararajan]

The Answer to The Ultimate Question Of Life, the Universe, and Everything == 42

Malarial Drug Research == 420

420 is 419 + 1 (419 - remember Nigeria?)

Malarial Drug Research/Answer to Ultimate question = 420/42 = 10
  remove 0 from 10 :-) and it is 1 , subtract 1 from 420 and it is 419.....

Something is really really fishy...

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comment already exceeded retard limit, hence no sig.

In Soviet Matrix, grids run on YOU

[iamacat]

I imagined a beowulf cluster of those, nekked and petrified. Then I got ashamed of myself for rehashing the old meme and dumped hot grits in my pants. As I was convulsing on the ground, there was only one thought left in my mind:

"Does it run Linux?"

Re:Excellent

[CommunistHamster]

Numerology: For when you have no real evidence.

Re:Malaria?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, I'm concerned about global warming too. But I think you're off base about malaria. Sure, there is a chance that malaria will be more prevalent. However, I think our real resources should be put to combating the animal predators from the North who will want to eat us for lunch.

First, when global warming happens, all the polar bears will come South looking for something to eat. We are probably on the top of their list. First, the bears will be real angry at us because we melted their front yard. And secondly, we happen to be the fattest creatures around--there is a lot of meat on our bones. And don't even get me started on what will happen to our shrubbery when the reindeer head this way.

I think instead of wasting CPU cycles on malaria, we instead should be using those computing resources searching for a safe but effective polar bear repellent. That way we have our priorities straight. Just my 2 cents.