IEEE Spectrum January, 2010 - 25

WInneRS+loSeRS 2010

loSeR

AUTOMOTIVE

Discharged

Chrome OS has no built-in applications-no iCal, no Outlook,
no TextEdit, no Word. You just turn on your netbook and you're
on the Web, in what we now call the cloud, where all your stuff
General Motors' Volt hybrid car is
lives: all your photos on Flickr, a long trail of your daily foibles and frustrations on Twitter, your purchasing history on
a courageous design, but it won't
PayPal, your prolix unpublished novel on LiveJournal, your
make money B Y P H I l I P e . R o S S
music collection on Rhapsody, and the stuff that might be a little embarrassing if your coworkers came across it on Facebook.
In fact, cloud computing is what makes Google's strategy posS o M e T I M e S A P R o J e c T fails even though the
sible. "There's only a browser," says Linus Upson, a director of
technology it pioneers is destined to conquer
the world. Take Babbage's steam-era computer,
engineering at Google, who is in charge of Chrome OS. "And all
Pioneer Electronics' LaserDisc home video
it does is get you onto the Web really, really fast."
system, or Apple's Newton-technically brilliant,
Cloud computing has become an everyday transaction.
yet business failures all.
Those computer users who don't need to store sensitive docuBetter yet, take General Motors' Chevrolet Volt,
a car known as a plug-in hybrid because it will get
ments locally can put everything up in the cloud without missmost of its power from the wall socket in a garage.
ing a beat. Nearly any application you desire-for e-mail, social
The Volt is bold, cool, and technically feasible. It
networking, maps, shopping, even music-no longer needs to be
appeals to early adopters, and it's catnip for the
stored on your computer. A significant number of people no lonautomotive fan mags. To cap it off, a little creative
ger use their computers for much that isn't Web-based. So why
accounting gives it the sheen of sky-high mileage,
the better to offset GM's gas-guzzlers and thus
not make it as easy as possible to open your laptop, press the on
meet future fuel efficiency targets.
button, and be where you want to be?
GM, stung by the failure of its EV1 all-electric
As an increasing number of applications become virtual-
car of yesteryear, has put its considerable
Microsoft is even taking Office 2010 into the cloud-you can use
corporate muscle into the Volt, building the
car into a game-changing breakthrough. But to
them without using a lick of your own computer's resources.
succeed on those terms, it'll have to become
Experts call the new paradigm "appliance computing," likening
a mass-market car-anything less wouldn't
your netbook to your television: Your TV doesn't care whether
make enough of a difference to a company that,
it's fed an HD or a standard signal as
even in its postbankrupt state, still remains the
long as the hardware can make sense
second-biggest automaker in the world. And
at a projected price of US $40 000, cosmic
of it. At last year's Supercomputing coneXPert caLLs
success just isn't going to happen.
ference, Nvidia showed off precisely that
"The ﬁrst year's volume, by GM's own
"No more
idea: A featherweight netbook with only
calculations, is 10 000 units, and you can't save
rudimentary graphics capabilities dismanaging,
a company with that. That's chicken feed. You'd
need a vehicle that sells 400 000 units," says
played
completely
photorealistic
threetracking, and
John Wolkonowicz, an auto industry analyst at
dimensional rendered images courtesy
backup-my data
IHS Global Insight, in Lexington, Mass.
of a server 500 miles away. Your Web
and applications
apps-Gmail, Google Calendar, Google
will be available
Docs, YouTube-are just small-scale
versions of that concept.
instantly from
But first, some untangling of terms,
any Internetbecause Google insists on sowing confuChrome OS is based on Chrome, a free, open-source Web
connected
sion by naming the OS after the browser. browser Google introduced in 2008 to compete with Apple's
terminal. Thank
The new technology is called Chrome Safari and Mozilla Firefox. Google is working with equipment
you, Google."
OS, an operating system that is mostly a manufacturers to create special hardware around the Chrome
nicK tredennicK
Web browser, but it's not Chrome, which operating system, based on Linux, which will run on x86 and
actually is a browser. Confused? You're ARM chips. Chrome OS-compatible netbooks are expected to
"I will admit that
not alone. Google punted on the naming appear by the fourth quarter of 2010, just in time for the holiday
Google is a deity,
conventions, but the company insists shopping season.
but even they
So if the whole operating system runs inside a browser, why
that it all makes sense. And it does. But
can't any computer use it right now? Well, at press time, there
it requires a little bit of explaining.
have bad-hair
Chrome OS is Google's stab at were still some pesky technical challenges that Google engidays. They can't
reinventing the operating system. To neers had to solve, which is why they released the fi rst openhave my data
understand why, you need a little back- source version of the code in November. Among the issues: How
in their cloud. I
ground in what makes an operating much storage do you build into a machine that isn't intended
don't trust them." system in a regular computer and why for off-line use? How do you come up with a smarter way to let
r O b e r t W. L U c K y
it's in need of an upgrade.
users print to any printer without worrying about drivers? Can
36

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum January, 2010