Startups Aim to Stitch PCs to Super-Computing Webs

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Startups Aim to Stitch PCs to Super-Computing Webs
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Friday December 15 6:54 PM ET
Startups Aim to Stitch PCs to Super-Computing Webs Startups Aim to Stitch PCs to Super-Computing Webs

By Eric Lai
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - What started as a quixotic quest for life in outer space has become a model for wild, new business plans to stitch millions of Internet-connected PCs together to create the world's most powerful supercomputers.
Startup firms have embarked on the next commercialization of cyberspace, drawing on the idle brainpower of the estimated 420 million personal computers worldwide to crack the toughest problems going, from simulating the behavior of molecules to creating complex digital animations.
Their inspiration? The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, or SETI, a University of California project to scan the universe for signs of alien life. More than 2.3 million people in the last two years have downloaded the SETI software, which loads when their PC is idle and crunches data obtained by radio telescopes. The software also doubles as a colorful screensaver.
SETI takes advantage of the fact that today's PCs are so powerful that the typical computer user doesn't require more than a tiny fraction of the machine's total brainpower.
``Ninety-nine percent of all PC cycles just fall on the floor,'' said James Madsen, chief executive of San Diego-based Entropia. Companies like Entropia hope to leverage these underutilized PCs to offer Ferrari-like power at K-car prices to groups that typically buy or lease supercomputers -- drug companies, movie studios and universities.
``You get 10 times the performance at the same cost,'' said Ed Hubbard, chief executive of United Devices, an Austin, Texas-based startup. ``This is a classic disruption technology.'' A PC IS A TERRIBLE THING TO WASTE
Distributed computing is an example of peer-to-peer networking, of which the music-sharing service Napster (news - web sites) is the best-known example. Instead of a single server controlling a number of client PCs, a peer-to-peer network is democratic, letting every linked PC draw upon each other's power.
And how powerful it can be. Take SETI. At an average of more than 12 trillion calculations a day, SETI is as fast as the world's most powerful supercomputer, International Business Machine Corp.'s (NYSE:IBM - news) ASCI White, an 8,192-processor behemoth that weighs 106 tons and covers an area the size of two basketball courts.
That number-crunching prowess derives from both the number and the power of SETI's contributors. A new, $2,000 Pentium 4-equipped PC runs 40 percent faster than a multimillion-dollar Cray supercomputer did just a decade ago, according to United's Hubbard.
Not surprisingly, one big supporter of distributed computing is Intel Corp. (NasdaqNM:INTC - news), which sees it as potentially reinvigorating demand for newer, faster PC processors, packed with more power than many consumers can use.
To join a distributed computing network, individuals download special software, which companies say should not crash their computers or pry into the data stored on their hard drive. To date, the new money-minded companies don't have networks as powerful as SETI because they have fewer contributors. Entropia, for example, has gathered 125,000 individuals to donate their PC's time to chug away on projects such as helping researchers test new AIDS (news - web sites) drugs.
But the companies are gearing up their marketing machines to win over both civic- and profit-minded PC owners. PAY FOR PLAY
With most companies, contributors who sign up earn cash, online credits or prizes. United Devices, for instance, expects to give away $10 million in cash next year.
For some, that echoes the 'pay-to-surf' Web sites, which pay users for viewing banner ads, a model that has not proved profitable.
United's Hubbard said its compensation model, which only pays top contributors, won't scale out of control.
Others, like Entropia, don't plan to pay at all.
``We think that people won't mind giving up some processing power in order to be part of something bigger,'' said Madsen, who compared it to donating money to a charity.
That, according to some skeptics, is an indication that distributed computing is still more vision than business plan.
``If it's not worth giving away money, that tells you something,'' said William Frezza, general partner with Adams Capital Management, at a distributed computing conference last week. ``There's no business there.'' SUPERCOMPUTERS: HERE TODAY, HERE TOMORROW
And, even the most ardent proponents agree that supercomputers are not in danger of being rendered obsolete by these new companies.
A corporation, for example, would have difficulty managing large databases across thousands or millions of computers, and many commercial clients would decline to have their data distributed, because of fears it could be stolen or altered.
``With SETI, there were people trying to send back fake data and claiming: 'Hey, I found ET!','' said Hubbard.
Because of those concerns, peer-to-peer startups say much of their business will come from helping client companies to tap the power of their existing fleet of PCs. Intel, for instance, has used its employees' PCs to shave time off the design of its latest processor.
Porivo Technologies is avoiding the confidentiality problem altogether. Porivo plans to leverage its PCs to test how fast they can download various Web sites, data it will sell.
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