The competition systems is built using Web Services and GRID technology.

Web Services are like the internet for computers. The worldwide web is a great place for people to access information, but computers find it hard to talk to each other without the helping hand of a human. So Web Services were created to help different computer systems exchange information, no matter what the details of those systems are. On example of Web Services is Microsoft .NET.

Download the poster about the Future Flight ICT system here. Grab the A4 PDF file (157kb), or A3 PDF file (333kb).

GRID systems can be built using Web Services, taking advantage of the huge range of tools available to developers.

 

 

 

GRID & e-Science

The idea of the computational GRID is to connect computers around the world together so that their power can be tapped from anywhere.

The system is akin to the national power grid. We can plug a device into the mains, and we get electricity that we know will power our device. We do not (necessarily) mind where that electricity came from, say a power station or wind turbine, but we do care about whether the electricity is at the correct voltage and frequency (240 Volts and 50 Hertz).

So the computational grid should provide us with computing power, so we can do some calculations say, and it should not matter where the computing was done - as long as we get the right answers.