New Apple Trademark: 'XGrid'

[MacRumors]

Apple has registered a new Trademark with the name "XGrid"


Communication by computer; communication intercommunication; rental, hire and leasing of communications apparatus; providing access to electronic communication networks for the access to electronic mail-boxes; electronic bulletin board services; electronic transmission of data and documents via a global computer network (Internet) or other databases; delivery of data and messages by electronic transmission; providing access to an electronic communication network for the downloading of information and data from a global computer network (Internet); consulting services in the fields of telecommunications; providing access to electronic bulletin boards.

Other Apple trademarks that are currently not known products include: Keynote (http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2002/10/20021013024617.shtml), Junkyard (http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2002/07/20020726125613.shtml), and Gigawire (http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2001/10/20011017174417.shtml).

[Classic]

Sounds like their own proprietary internet.....

[medea]

Well since the other thread is closed I'll post this link here. It looks like a company has already brought out a program called Xgrid, the company is Greetree technologies and the link to the press release (the only information about the program I could find on the site) is http://www.green-tree.com/homelinks.asp?page=pressroom .It's a database program sort of like Excel. Since another company has already used that name I'm thinking either that companies trademark has run out (?) or Apple either purchased the rights to that name from them or purchased the company. Or they could be completely unrelated. heh.

[Wes]

Sounds like apple is going to add more functionality to Appleworks or add their own twist to openoffice.

[jccbin]

If I remember correctly, Apple has rights to use a specific high-power frequency band from the FCC (They bought the rights at nationwide auction or somehow got the frequency opened for their use back in the mid-90s).

Many speculated that Apple was launching a nationwide cellular network or wireless communication for the Newton.

It now appears that they are preparing to create just such a network for unknown devices- perhaps interlinking home Airport networks wirelessly nationwide.... Additional equipment required, of course.

Hmm. "We'll be kicking ass," Steve grinned.

[smackdesign]

It has something to do with servers hense the name starting with X. that's all I can say for now.

[mmoore00]

It sounds to me like the xServe clustering rumor we heard a few months ago- you could cluster multiple xServes to combine their power. Anyone else remember that?

[Tue12]

XGRID ... the latest incarnation of Tic-Tac-Toe!

:D

[synergy]

Well IBM has been talking about computing grids for a long time now.
Basically distributed computing doing one task.
Maybe Apple will implement something like that? Distributed computing network to handle large complex computing tasks. Get the users involved and maybe pay them something. So far none of the startup distributed computing companies go far enough to pay consistently for them borrowing your computer's idle time. A big company like Apple can make it happen probably much easier.

[MacBandit]

Seems to me like it's some new way of communicating with and maintaining a server over the internet or another form of network.

[dernhelm]

I'd say it sounds like an Apple branded router. Perhaps an enterprise level "airport base station". Can't think for the life of me why they'd want to play in Cisco's space, though. :confused:

[rice_web]

Three words: AUTOMATIC CLUSTERTING OF ALL TASKS.

Okay, that's five. However, I do believe that this is a feature that will ship with the next version of OS X Server. It'd be one of the last driving factors to buy a Mac.

[Blackcat]

IBM, Sun, and quite a few other companies are working with the UK Govt on a thing called The Grid. It will be the most powerful distributed computing platform in the world (for a short time at least) and will be available to anybody who needs to rent lots of computing power - say for DNA analysis.

The most important bit is that no proprietry clients will be allowed. MS wanted to base their part on .NET meaning only other .NET clients could share CPU power. They have been told no :)

I think XGrid sounds like the Apple offering. My girlfriend works for EPSRC and mentioned Tony Hey had met with IBM, Apple, MS & Sun earlier this year.

Check out http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/ and do a search on Grid for more info.

[dboy]

Originally posted by synergy
Well IBM has been talking about computing grids for a long time now.

This was my same thought when I read this too. Right now the talk about grids is focused on the scientific community, but from everything I hear it is supposed to change the enterprise computing model in the coming years.

This completely blows my mind (in a good way). First Apple gets in the data center with the Xserve (Xraid, etc). Undoubtedly its a great machine and can handle web/mail/file serving etc... But imagine Apple on the (b)leading edge of enterprise computing with XGrid!

Of course, maybe this is an office or wireless something like others have conjectured. But if this is an enterprise focused application, one thing I have to say I am amazed at is how well Apple has been able to provide what both consumers and enterprises want (in the past couple months/year, at least). At least from a product point of view... I think everyone would like to see a number higher than 1.25 GHz on the specs of those products...

[stukoch]

What if this is a new .Mac service. In my dreams it could mean that Apple will allow people to "lease" time on a cluster of Xserve's. This would be awsome for thigs like Final Cut projects and big Photoshop jobs. Just a thought, but it would be very cool.

-Stu

[etoiles]

Originally posted by stukoch
What if this is a new .Mac service. In my dreams it could mean that Apple will allow people to "lease" time on a cluster of Xserve's. This would be awsome for thigs like Final Cut projects and big Photoshop jobs. Just a thought, but it would be very cool.

-Stu

...and maybe you could earn some credits towards your .mac account by letting them use your idle cpu cycles...When you buy a mac, you actually buy a distributed supercomputer ;)

[Billicus]

Originally posted by etoiles


...and maybe you could earn some credits towards your .mac account by letting them use your idle cpu cycles...When you buy a mac, you actually buy a distributed supercomputer ;)

I don't care for that idea. Maybe it's just me though? :rolleyes:

[etoiles]

Originally posted by Billicus


I don't care for that idea. Maybe it's just me though? :rolleyes:

hey, you are right, 'selling' your cpu cycles won't really work, because you would need to run the actual apps...stupid me.

doh !

But it would be cool if it did work :D

[designpro]

My thought is that Apple will announce an update on the 6th of November, could be at the Supercomputing 2002 in Baltimore (http://www.sc2002.org/) or it could be a totally separate non-announcing announcement updates on the Book's.
for the XGrid thing, i bet this is what it is. GRID 2002 "get-together", just exactly what the trademark's definition is (http://www.gridcomputing.org/grid2002).

[danielmaui]

Originally posted by dernhelm
I'd say it sounds like an Apple branded router. Perhaps an enterprise level "airport base station". Can't think for the life of me why they'd want to play in Cisco's space, though. :confused:

Because Cisco access points, although fantastically great products, are a pain in the rear to configure compared to Apple's Airport. If they only had Apple's ease of use, then they'd be worth the $600+

[Marvenp]

This sounds cool but how will it affect the sales of high end personal computers?

[Jimong5]

Originally posted by etoiles


hey, you are right, 'selling' your cpu cycles won't really work, because you would need to run the actual apps...stupid me.

doh !

But it would be cool if it did work :D

There is a type of Thing called "Niced Processes". They sit in the background and give priority to other cycles, therefor, use all the available power, but wont affect performance at all, much like the SETI @ Home / Folding@home projects

[Gelfin]

My money's on Xserve clustering. It seems the most obvious thing that name would describe, especially because it's something they so sorely need. I'm guessing operation over Gig.E using shared storage off one or more Xraids.

[soulman_hh]

Did anyone notice the central word in the quote? It's not clustering, clustering is not even mentioned. The word of interest is "communication". For me, it reads like this:

XGrid
- rental, hire and leasing of communications apparatus
- providing access to electronic communication networks for the access to
--- electronic mail-boxes
--- electronic bulletin board services
--- electronic transmission of data and documents
via a global computer network (Internet) or other databases.

So, I think it's more the wireless access, maybe in big cities, where you just log in with your .Mac-account or the XGrid must know your Hardware Ethernet Adress to know who you are and to know where to send the bill. So you have a grid in wich you can move around and your computer keeps you online.

OT:
Or maybe it's not your computer, maybe it's your PDA ;-) ... no, no, I know, there will be no PDA from Apple ... just dreaming again. Yesterday I revived my Newton 100 - it's still working and it still "knows" my writing style. That was a great piece of technology. And I know, Ive can do it better.

[mcrain]

I know I'm not very smart, but that sounds a lot like some sort of next generation cellular/wireless internet system.

[backdraft]

Maybe Xgrid is the next generation of online gaming Mac -> Mac or Mac -> PC multiplayer action on Xserve. Probably part of .Mac?

Any thoughts?

-backdraft

[mcrain]

IBM just bought a Terian or something like that... They do database stuff.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/tech/news/1646344

[RandomMacGuy]

One word: Beowulf

Imagine a Beowulf cluster of Xserves working on some protein strands or dna sequences. Scientific progression? I think so.

[Flydwin]

I think this news refers to a presentation I saw in Montréal 2 weeks ago. Apple Canada and a Ottawa company named GridIron demonstrate a clustering technology that use a cluster of 8 dual 1Ghz Xserve to render a complex fractal image. On Titaniun, the render takes more than 1 hour and with the Gridiron soft and the Xserves it takes less than 30 seonds. They also demonstrate a search in a protein database names Blast. On a mainframe that search takes more than an hour and on the cluster it takes less than 2 minutes. I dont remember the exact numbers but i was very, very, very impressed. Powerful, simple to use, helpfull...

I also know that this week, GridIron team is in Cupertino... For a big meeting on biotechnology and distributed calculation.

I saw a link with these events and this news.

[Durandal7]

The Gridiron application sounds very intriuging. It would have good implications for the SFX and Scientific markets. I'm led to believe that it is some sort of distributed computing.

[wrylachlan]

Over at the forums on Ars Technica, someone posted about having heard a speach about future grid computing initiatives, and one of those was X-Grid from Apple. Apparently it uses rendezvous to find computing power on the net and perform tasks. Check it out.

http://arstechnica.infopop.net/OpenTopic/page?a=tpc&s=50009562&f=8300945231&m=6380998745

[iJon]

I was just thinking, we the app keynote now available to take over powerpoint, could this be the app for excel. i mean x"grid", wouldnt the windows of excel look sortof like a grid, who knows. guess we will have to see.

iJon

[nighthawk]

Originally posted by wrylachlan
Over at the forums on Ars Technica, someone posted about having heard a speach about future grid computing initiatives, and one of those was X-Grid from Apple. Apparently it uses rendezvous to find computing power on the net and perform tasks. Check it out.

http://arstechnica.infopop.net/OpenTopic/page?a=tpc&s=50009562&f=8300945231&m=6380998745

The question is wheither or not this would allow non-network compatible/aware and/or non-multithreaded software take advantage of the shared computer grid.

What would this do companies like Lightwave (Newtek) and Maya who currently charge for each license on the render-farm. Would this service allow the user to use only one license for modeling and take advantage of a bunch of dummy machines for rendering? Sounds good to me!!

As far as Photoshop goes, I don't think that there will be an advantage at all (unless it is Batch image processing).

[aafuss1]

I noticed there was a program called keynotes for the pc somewhwere-Aple ciuld sue the maker of his-for the name being too simlsar tyo the aple app Keynote.

[Catfish_Man]

Originally posted by nighthawk


The question is wheither or not this would allow non-network compatible/aware and/or non-multithreaded software take advantage of the shared computer grid.

Non-multithreaded software cannot be executed in parallel. However, a good clustering system wouldn't require apps to be aware of it (any more than they're aware of dual processors, that is), it would just treat the other machines as more processors with different scheduling latencies (probably by using mach processor groups).

[Thanatoast]

i think this distributed computing idea is great. even if it's not what xgrid is, apple should start the progam. imagine what we could accomplish with the spare cycles on every mac going towards a good cause. sweet. :cool:

[nighthawk]

Originally posted by Catfish_Man


Non-multithreaded software cannot be executed in parallel. However, a good clustering system wouldn't require apps to be aware of it (any more than they're aware of dual processors, that is), it would just treat the other machines as more processors with different scheduling latencies (probably by using mach processor groups).

So, you are saying that a single-threaded application will not have any benefit, right? Then would a multi-threaded application be required to have as many threads as there are potential processors? Or would there be one processor that only handles process requests, and delegates them to the waiting processors?

[Sol]

XGrid could be another name for THE MATRIX! Oh no, our beloved Apple is implementing a system to enslave humanity. Look at the proof: Matrix-style screen savers are available for the Mac. The Earth's surface is allready becoming unbearable. We are all doomed!!!

Seriously though, if XGrid is a variation on the Bewulf Clusters then I hope that pro applications like Final Cut Pro & Maya can take advantage of other Macs on a network to render effects, QuickTime movies, etc. If XGrid is anything like that then several XServes would suffice for a budget priced rendering farm.