Jim Gray, left, and Gordon Bell, scientists at Microsoft's Bay Area Research Center in San Francisco, say that research will increasingly be data-driven and make use of inexpensive clusters of PC's.

o o o

Dr. Gray and Dr. Bell, a legendary computer designer who oversaw the national supercomputer centers for two years during the 1980's as a director for the National Science Foundation, call their current approach to computing "information centric" and "community centric." By rewriting existing scientific programs, they say, researchers will be able to get powerful computing from inexpensive clusters of personal computers that are running the free Linux software operating system. Many scientists are now adapting their work to these parallel computing systems, known as Beowulfs, which make it possible to cobble together tremendous computing power at low cost.

[link|http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/02/technology/02SUPE.html?pagewanted=1|NYT article link]. (iwethey/iwethey if you aren't registered)

Whoops, did not read that memo from Ballmer! Guess who will get a lecture when they return back to the ranch?