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大战略技术(2)

(上接第47期)

7. 普遍计算

(对于普遍计算)研究人员的目标是创造这样一种系统，它普遍存在、无阻碍地嵌入环境、完全互联、直观、毫不费力就能便携以及始终可用。可望在未来的普遍计算环境中流行的新兴技术有可穿戴的计算机、智能住宅以及智能大厦等。支持它们的工具有专用集成电路(ASIC)、语音识别、姿态识别、片上系统(SoC)、感知接口、智能物资、柔软晶体管、可重配置处理器、现场可编程逻辑门阵列(FPLG)以及微型机电系统(MEMS)等。

8. 基于位置的服务

基于位置的服务(LBS)是利用信息设备的用户所处位置的知识的服务。例如，无线连接的智能电话能显示用户旅行所在区域特有的广告。LBS利用任何一种可以知道用户地理位置的技术。其中一种就是全球定位系统(GPS)。第二种是E911，这是美国联邦通信委员会(FCC)的一项倡议，要求无线营运商向紧急台查明报警者的电话号码。E911还确保营运商能提供无线电话的呼叫位置。在美国，E911是使用最广泛的基于位置的服务。

9. 网格计算

网格计算是将一个网络中的很多计算机的资源同时应用于处理单个问题，通常是需要大量计算机处理周期或存取大量数据的科学或技术问题。网格计算需要使用的软件能分割程序和把它们“寄养”在成千上万的计算机上。网格计算可以认为是一种分布式的大规模机群计算、一种网络分布的并行处理。它可以限定在一家公司内部的计算机工作站网络上，或者也可以是社会公众的合作(在此情况下有时也认为是一种点对点的对等计算形式)。

10. 虚拟化

在信息技术中，虚拟化有多个意义。

(1)对于计算机硬件而言，虚拟化是使用软件来仿真硬件或整个计算机环境。这种软件有时也叫做虚拟机。虚拟机可以存在于一台计算机，它也运行对该计算机而言是正常的、而不是虚拟机一部分的程序。

(2)相对于计算机内存，虚拟化是指使用软件，以允许程序能够寻址的内存比实际能使用的要大得多。通常，这是通过来回在存储设备与内存之间交换地址空间的单元而实现的。这样的内存称作虚拟存储器。

(3)在计算机存储管理中，虚拟化是把多个网络存储设备的物理存储整合成从控制台上看像是单个存储设备。(全文结束)