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> Homer Wilson Smith and Jane Elizabeth Staller have been fascinated by
> the possibilities of these machines since the 1980s - beginning with
> the creation of fractals.
> "We put them on T-shirts and postcards," Smith said. "But, by about
> 1995 we realized that everyone could make fractals so we started to
> look into doing something else."
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18107350&BRD=1395&PAG=461&dept_id=546876&rfi=6
03/21/2007
Faster than Light
By: Jason Gabak
From the first punch card computers, to the rooms of seemingly endless
tape machines running non-stop, to the primitive home computers of the
late 1970s and early '80s, to the PCs and laptops that have become
common place today, the world of computer technology has grown by leaps
and bounds in a relatively short period of time.
Homer Wilson Smith and Jane Elizabeth Staller have been fascinated by
the possibilities of these machines since the 1980s - beginning with the
creation of fractals.
"We put them on T-shirts and postcards," Smith said. "But, by about 1995
we realized that everyone could make fractals so we started to look into
doing something else."
From this, Lightlink was born.
"I've always been good with computers," Smith says. "I was always
interested in what they could do, so we thought that might be a good
area to get into."
The company, co-owned by Smith and Staller, started out as a means to
offer higher speed Internet service in the Ithaca area.
The company has offered a wide variety of Internet services since
opening in 1995, from dial up and dial up acceleration to DSL and
wireless service - as well as Web hosting.
Smith and Staller say they always have strived to stay at the forefront
of computer technology and offer customers the latest and best possible
service, but similar to their experience with fractals, it is time to
make another leap forward.
"Everyone is on the Internet now," Smith said. "We've always tried to
offer the best service possible and keep moving ahead and making things
better and offer better services."
The next leap for Lightlink will be into the realm of "super-computing"
power or what has become more commonly known now as on-demand computing,
high-performance computing or utility computing.
While Smith was reading a book on genetics by James Watson, he began to
contemplate the idea of super computing, and what the applications for
this might be in Ithaca.
Super computers available to the scientific community by the mid-1980s,
but time on the machines was limited and in high-demand.
_/*Smith has been developing a system to make higher computing speeds
available to a wide customer base, taking super computers from the hands
of a few and making them an accessible option for more customers.*/_
Through Smith's system, large numbers of computing cycles - estimates
are currently anticipating a beginning number of 1000 CPUs - will be
made available to users via the integration of Intel platforms running
standard operating systems, such as Linux and Windows.
Users will be able to interface through a Web page that will allow them
to purchase time on the system.
"A user will be able to basically swipe their credit card through and
have access to what they need," Smith said. "And they will be able to
get their job done."
While plans call for starting with approximately 1000 CPUs, Smith says
in the not-too-distant future, 10,000 CPUs might be possible; and within
15 to 20 years a million CPUs are not out of the question
In many ways, Smith says, while there have been advances in computer
technology and computing power, truly powerful machines are still in the
hands of the minority.
"Take movies, graphic rendering," he says. "Say you have to fill in 10
minutes of the film. The way it is now, it might take hundreds of people
many hours on many computers to create those images, per frame - a very
long, time consuming job. But as we look toward the future, the same job
could be done with a few people in a few hours ... and get the same job
done with more processing speed."
While advances in CGI technology have taken the movie world by storm
during the past decade, Smith says this is really just a fraction of the
applications for a super-computing system.
He says there are numerous possible applications in all fields of
science, from genetic research to disease research to weather.
"We know what makes the genome," Smith says. "But there is still so much
we don't know. These kinds of computations for genes or tracking
diseases and seeing how they mutate and change or mapping the weather.
Or figuring out the 'Big Bang' and other areas of astronomy - these
computations take an enormous amount of computing power. This system
will make that power more readily available for research into these
areas."
Smith says within the next month he anticipates being able to make an
official announcement about the location of his new system, and to be up
and running and available to the consumer market by September.
"We have to find our market," he says. "And find the people [who] are
going to be using this. But, we are pretty far along, and we expect to
be fully operational by September."
The opportunity to contribute to the scientific world in such a way is
the realization of a life-long dream for Smith.
"I always wanted to be a scientist," Smith says. "But I was always good
with computers. This is what I can do to help out the scientific
community and this is what I can do to do something useful for the world."
For more information on Lightlink visit the Web site www.lightlink.com.
- Jason Gabak
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<blockquote type="cite">Homer Wilson Smith and Jane Elizabeth Staller
have been fascinated by
the possibilities of these machines since the 1980s - beginning with
the creation of fractals.<br>
"We put them on T-shirts and postcards," Smith said. "But, by about
1995 we realized that everyone could make fractals so we started to
look into doing something else."</blockquote>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18107350&BRD=1395&PAG=461&dept_id=546876&rfi=6">http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18107350&BRD=1395&PAG=461&dept_id=546876&rfi=6</a><br>
03/21/2007<br>
Faster than Light<br>
By: Jason Gabak<br>
<br>
From the first punch card computers, to the rooms of seemingly endless
tape machines running non-stop, to the primitive home computers of the
late 1970s and early '80s, to the PCs and laptops that have become
common place today, the world of computer technology has grown by leaps
and bounds in a relatively short period of time.<br>
Homer Wilson Smith and Jane Elizabeth Staller have been fascinated by
the possibilities of these machines since the 1980s - beginning with
the creation of fractals.<br>
"We put them on T-shirts and postcards," Smith said. "But, by about
1995 we realized that everyone could make fractals so we started to
look into doing something else."<br>
From this, Lightlink was born.<br>
"I've always been good with computers," Smith says. "I was always
interested in what they could do, so we thought that might be a good
area to get into."<br>
The company, co-owned by Smith and Staller, started out as a means to
offer higher speed Internet service in the Ithaca area.<br>
The company has offered a wide variety of Internet services since
opening in 1995, from dial up and dial up acceleration to DSL and
wireless service - as well as Web hosting.<br>
Smith and Staller say they always have strived to stay at the forefront
of computer technology and offer customers the latest and best possible
service, but similar to their experience with fractals, it is time to
make another leap forward.<br>
"Everyone is on the Internet now," Smith said. "We've always tried to
offer the best service possible and keep moving ahead and making things
better and offer better services."<br>
The next leap for Lightlink will be into the realm of "super-computing"
power or what has become more commonly known now as on-demand
computing, high-performance computing or utility computing.<br>
While Smith was reading a book on genetics by James Watson, he began to
contemplate the idea of super computing, and what the applications for
this might be in Ithaca.<br>
Super computers available to the scientific community by the mid-1980s,
but time on the machines was limited and in high-demand.<br>
<u><i><b>Smith has been developing a system to make higher computing
speeds available to a wide customer base, taking super computers from
the hands of a few and making them an accessible option for more
customers.</b></i></u><br>
Through Smith's system, large numbers of computing cycles - estimates
are currently anticipating a beginning number of 1000 CPUs - will be
made available to users via the integration of Intel platforms running
standard operating systems, such as Linux and Windows.<br>
Users will be able to interface through a Web page that will allow them
to purchase time on the system.<br>
"A user will be able to basically swipe their credit card through and
have access to what they need," Smith said. "And they will be able to
get their job done."<br>
While plans call for starting with approximately 1000 CPUs, Smith says
in the not-too-distant future, 10,000 CPUs might be possible; and
within 15 to 20 years a million CPUs are not out of the question<br>
In many ways, Smith says, while there have been advances in computer
technology and computing power, truly powerful machines are still in
the hands of the minority.<br>
"Take movies, graphic rendering," he says. "Say you have to fill in 10
minutes of the film. The way it is now, it might take hundreds of
people many hours on many computers to create those images, per frame -
a very long, time consuming job. But as we look toward the future, the
same job could be done with a few people in a few hours ... and get the
same job done with more processing speed."<br>
While advances in CGI technology have taken the movie world by storm
during the past decade, Smith says this is really just a fraction of
the applications for a super-computing system.<br>
He says there are numerous possible applications in all fields of
science, from genetic research to disease research to weather.<br>
"We know what makes the genome," Smith says. "But there is still so
much we don't know. These kinds of computations for genes or tracking
diseases and seeing how they mutate and change or mapping the weather.
Or figuring out the 'Big Bang' and other areas of astronomy - these
computations take an enormous amount of computing power. This system
will make that power more readily available for research into these
areas."<br>
Smith says within the next month he anticipates being able to make an
official announcement about the location of his new system, and to be
up and running and available to the consumer market by September.<br>
"We have to find our market," he says. "And find the people [who] are
going to be using this. But, we are pretty far along, and we expect to
be fully operational by September."<br>
The opportunity to contribute to the scientific world in such a way is
the realization of a life-long dream for Smith.<br>
"I always wanted to be a scientist," Smith says. "But I was always good
with computers. This is what I can do to help out the scientific
community and this is what I can do to do something useful for the
world."<br>
For more information on Lightlink visit the Web site <a
class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="http://www.lightlink.com">www.lightlink.com</a>.<br>
- Jason Gabak<br>
<br>
<br>
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