2006 Top 10 Strategic Technologies(2)

7. Pervasive computing

The goal of researchers is to create a system that is pervasively and unobtrusively embedded in the environment, completely connected, intuitive, effortlessly portable, and constantly available. Among the emerging technologies expected to prevail in the pervasive computing environment of the future are wearable computers, smart homes and smart buildings. Among the myriad of tools expected to support these are: application-specific integrated circuitry (ASIC);speech recognition; gesture recognition; system on a chip(SoC); perceptive interfaces; smart matter; flexible transistors; reconfigurable processors; field programmable logic gates(FPLG); and microelectromechanical systems(MEMS).

8. location-based services

Location-based services (LBS) are services that exploit knowledge about where an information device user is located. For example, the user of a wireless-connected smartphone could be shown ads specific to the region the user is traveling in. Location-based services exploit any of several technologies for knowing where a network user is geographically located. One is the Global Positioning System (GPS). A second approach is E911, an initiative of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that requires wireless carriers to pinpoint a caller’s telephone number to emergency dispatchers. E911 also ensures that carriers will be able to provide call locations from wireless phones. E911 is the most widely used location-based service in the U.S.

9. grid computing

Grid computing is applying the resources of many computers in a network to a single problem at the same time - usually to a scientific or technical problem that requires a great number of computer processing cycles or access to large amounts of data. Grid computing requires the use of software that can divide and farm out pieces of a program to as many as several thousand computers. Grid computing can be thought of as distributed and large-scale cluster computing and as a form of network-distributed parallel processing. It can be confined to the network of computer workstations within a corporation or it can be a public collaboration (in which case it is also sometimes known as a form of peer-to-peer computing).

10. virtualization

In information technology, virtualization has several meanings.

(1)With computer hardware, virtualization is the use of software to emulate hardware or a total computer environment. This kind of software is sometimes known as a virtual machine. A virtual machine may exist in a computer that is also running programs that are natural to that computer and not part of the virtual machine.

(2)Relative to computer memory, virtualization is the use of software to allow a program to address a much larger amount of memory than is actually available. This is generally done by swapping units of address space back and forth as needed between a storage device and memory. Such memory is known as virtual memory.

(3)In computer storage management, virtualization is the pooling of physical storage from multiple network storage devices into what appears to be a single storage device that is managed from a central console.(The end)

2006年的10大戰略技術(2)

(上接第47期)

7. 普遍計算

(對于普遍計算)研究人員的目標是創造這樣一種系統，它普遍存在、無阻礙地嵌入環境、完全互聯、直觀、毫不費力就能便攜以及始終可用。可望在未來的普遍計算環境中流行的新興技術有可穿戴的計算機、智能住宅以及智能大廈等。支持它們的工具有專用集成電路(ASIC)、語音識別、姿態識別、片上系統(SoC)、感知接口、智能物資、柔軟晶體管、可重配置處理器、現場可編程邏輯門陣列(FPLG)以及微型機電系統(MEMS)等。

8. 基于位置的服務

基于位置的服務(LBS)是利用信息設備的用戶所處位置的知識的服務。例如，無線連接的智能電話能顯示用戶旅行所在區域特有的廣告。LBS利用任何一種可以知道用戶地理位置的技術。其中一種就是全球定位系統(GPS)。第二種是E911，這是美國聯邦通信委員會(FCC)的一項倡議，要求無線營運商向緊急臺查明報警者的電話號碼。E911還確保營運商能提供無線電話的呼叫位置。在美國，E911是使用最廣泛的基于位置的服務。

9. 網格計算

網格計算是將一個網絡中的很多計算機的資源同時應用于處理單個問題，通常是需要大量計算機處理周期或存取大量數據的科學或技術問題。網格計算需要使用的軟件能分割程序和把它們“寄養”在成千上萬的計算機上。網格計算可以認為是一種分布式的大規模機群計算、一種網絡分布的并行處理。它可以限定在一家公司內部的計算機工作站網絡上，或者也可以是社會公眾的合作(在此情況下有時也認為是一種點對點的對等計算形式)。

10. 虛擬化

在信息技術中，虛擬化有多個意義。

(1)對于計算機硬件而言，虛擬化是使用軟件來仿真硬件或整個計算機環境。這種軟件有時也叫做虛擬機。虛擬機可以存在于一臺計算機，它也運行對該計算機而言是正常的、而不是虛擬機一部分的程序。

(2)相對于計算機內存，虛擬化是指使用軟件，以允許程序能夠尋址的內存比實際能使用的要大得多。通常，這是通過來回在存儲設備與內存之間交換地址空間的單元而實現的。這樣的內存稱作虛擬存儲器。

(3)在計算機存儲管理中，虛擬化是把多個網絡存儲設備的物理存儲整合成從控制臺上看像是單個存儲設備。(全文結束)