Cloud computing becomes "transparent" with users 0 distance

Cloud computing is the name of the IT industry can be said to be familiar, whenever the size of manufacturers, conferences and meetings, as if "no cloud is not fashionable." What we do not know is that before the concept of cloud computing was put forward, China had a similar concept. In 1998, the group led by academician Zhang of Chinese Academy of Engineering proposed a theory of transparent computing.

Conceptual depth fusion with different emphases

Transparent computing, in short, refers to users in the use of computer systems, do not have to perceive the operating system, middleware, applications and so on, as long as the requirements of their applications, through the network from the use of various terminal equipment (such as fixed and mobile terminal equipment and all kinds of home equipment) Select and use a computational model of related computing services such as computing, television, internet, and entertainment.

The core idea of cloud computing is to manage and dispatch a large number of computing resources with http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/18415.html > Network connections, and form a computing resource pool to serve users on demand. It means getting the required services on demand and in a scalable way over the network.

By expounding the concepts of cloud computing and transparent computing, we can simply compare the differences between the two. The same place lies in the use of Network segmentation network server and terminal functions, after segmentation, terminal functions less and more functions, both rely on a technical facilities, including the Internet, mobile Internet, 3G, network infrastructure installation. The difference is whether to push from the front or back. Cloud computing is from the entire Internet, from the server to the terminal, is the WAN storage and search mode. and transparent computing is starting from the terminal, from the beginning of the 3C to start from the terminal to the front end, back to the end to push.

In fact, these two concepts are not identical, more like a complementary. Attempts to focus on the transparent computing of the terminal and focus on the server, data Center cloud computing, complementary connection.

UEFI Standard Booster Transparent computing landing

Dr He Jingxiang, general manager of the Intel Software and Services Division of China, said that the cloud was not just a data center, but that the cloud had no end and was not a complete cloud computing model. The user experience is a requirement that needs to be met eventually, which is also emphasized by the balanced cloud computing.

UEFI is an interface standard that defines the interface between the operating system and the underlying hardware platform to replace an industry specification for the traditional BIOS of basic input and output systems. This interface is used for operating system automatically from the pre-boot operating environment, loaded into an operating system, so that the start-up program to simplify, save time. Generally speaking, after the interface standardization, a software can run on different platforms, such as PC, server, mobile phone, Tablet PC.

2000 Intel Corporation issued EFI definition Firmware Interface specification. 2006, Intel and Tsinghua began to collaborate on UEFI system software technology virtualization technology for transparent computing development solutions. Lu Ying, director of the Intel Platform Software Architecture Division, China, says UEFI is the dividing line between hardware and software, which is the operating system, with different architectures underneath. While the transparent calculation is to seek the logic separation of software and hardware, the logical separation of software hardware is realized by UEFI, and the understanding of transparent computing is very suitable.

To form an industrial chain

Dr. Zhou, associate researcher at the Department of Computer Science and technology at Tsinghua University, told reporters that transparent computing in the study of technical problems is not too much, relatively speaking how to turn the scientific and technological achievements into commercial products is a relatively big challenge. In addition, BIOS technology is owned by private companies and cannot be developed without authorization. The UEFI infrastructure is open source and facilitates development. Linux and Android are open source at the OS level, but Windows and iOS are closed systems. How to support them is a relatively big challenge. Zhou said Tsinghua is communicating at the technical level with the Intel Institute to try some legal means.

Zhou said that because the interface standard between cloud and cloud is not yet unified, the current transparent computing will focus on the interface between the end and the cloud. He hopes to collaborate with Intel to suggest an interface that is connected to the backend, and then open with a different cloud platform after having an interface.

While the understanding of transparent computing is very much in line with user needs, we actually see a long way to go in the future of transparent computing. The business interests of different operating systems are not easily accessible. However, this is a direction of industrial development, the future equipment will certainly be more and more intelligent. It is believed that with the participation of companies like Intel, it will certainly accelerate the progress of transparent computing.

In addition, Tsinghua has a very good sense of intellectual property that is more related. According to Zhou, they started applying for patents in 2000 and now have more than 10 licenses.

(Responsible editor: Lu Guang)