By connecting hundreds or even thousands of computers together to work on a single project, computer scientists are more frequently using a technique called grid computing to do previously intractable computations. Grid computing takes advantage of ''down time'' when computers are not using their full processing power to provide quick answers to problems in fields such as genomics, engineering design and financial services. While parallel processing typically involves tying together multiple computers at a single site--all using one piece of software--a computer grid may be much more geographically dispersed, composed of many heterogeneous computers whose availability may change over time.

At the Science Blog.

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