The HPC Revolution

摘要

Some might consider what Microsoft is proposing at its technical computing portal as play-ing God in pixels. Others might view it as technology imitating life. "Modeling the World" (modelingtheworld.com) showcases an initiative to enable scientists, engineers, and researchers to digitally reproduce com-plex bio-eco-mechanical systems that affect our lives-weather patterns, traffic flows, dis-ease spread, to name but a few-so they can be used for predictions. In his personal note posted to the site, Bob Muglia, president of Microsoft Server and Tools Business, writes, "Our goal is to unleash the power of pervasive, accurate, real-time modeling to help people and organizations achieve their objectives and realize their potential ... One day soon, complicated tasks like building a sophisticated computer model that would typically take a team of advanced software programmers months to build and days to run, will be accomplished in a single afternoon by a scientist, engineer or analyst working at the PC on their desktop."