Big Bang and Grid Computing

Scientists in Switzerland are building a machine to test the big-bang theory of how the universe began as u all would be aware of guys. But first they have to construct a computer network that can handle the volumes of data the device will produce.

The new, more powerful particle accelerator, known as the Large Hadron Collider, is being built at CERN, the same Swiss laboratory where Tim Berners-Lee developed the World Wide Web. With such a tool, scientists say that they will either be able to produce the same particles thought to have existed when the universe was formed, or they will have proved that such particles just don't exist.

But before they can test their theory, the scientists will need a computer network capable of processing and storing the massive amounts of data that will begin spewing from the collider once it starts smashing particles together in 2007. As a result, researchers at CERN created Openlab, a grid computing network designed to test the type of equipment that is likely to be standard by the middle to end of this decade when the project really gets under way.

In grid computing, large numbers of desktop PCs and modestly sized servers are linked across a network in a way that allows them to function as a single, virtual supercomputer.

"The hope is that we, together with partners, solve whatever bugs there are," said Francois Grey, development manager for the Openlab effort.