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PEOPLE always want more. That is a truism, but it is particularly true in the field of computing: more memory, more processing power, more speed, more everything. It is, perhaps, a neat linguistic coincidence that the rate at which this moreness is delivered is commonly known as Moore's law.

The latest manifestation of this is the desktop supercomputer. Though the definition of a supercomputer is slippery, machines that carry this label have traditionally been big boxes that can do big calculations, such as those needed for forecasting weather, designing nuclear weapons and generating the graphics for Hollywood films. However, it is possible to get a similar effect by linking a number of smaller computers in what is known as a server cluster, using clever programming techniques to make them behave as a single unit.

Often, though, such clusters are expensive lash-ups. They consume a lot of power and thus generate a lot of heat. They frequently rely on bespoke software. And they have a tendency to break down. Moreover, being a shared resource, they are the subject of competition between users. Far better, were it possible, to have a single box of equivalent power on each user's desk, for him to do with as he likes.

And that is exactly what SiCortex and Scalable Servers Corporation, two small American firms, plan to do. At the Supercomputing 07 conference in Reno, Nevada, this week, they unveiled their wares. Each has packaged something like a server cluster into a single box, to produce what each hopes will be a commercially viable desktop supercomputer.

On the outside, the machines in question look like big desktop PCs. On the inside, they are rather different. Instead of one or two microprocessors (the business parts of a computer, which do the actual calculations), they have dozens—up to 72 in the case of SiCortex. It is these microprocessors that are the analogue of the server cluster. The difference is that because they are linked together in a pre-planned standard design, the arrangement is much more efficient than hooking up a set of stand-alone machines.

A standard design also allows a standard operating system to be used. This operating system is far more complex than Vista or Leopard, the desktop systems produced by Microsoft and Apple respectively. Besides running the calculations, it has to assign each calculation to a particular processor, as efficiently as possible. It then has to assemble and synthesise the results, and present them to the user. Moreover, if one of the microprocessors fails, it has to notice the loss, and work out how to rearrange the calculations to take account of it.

SiCortex and Scalable Servers are not the only people trying to usher in the age of the desktop supercomputer. A couple of years ago a firm called Orion tried (and failed). More recently, Hewlett-Packard combined bite-sized versions of its business computers into a system that can sit on a desk.

Unlike Hewlett-Packard (but like Orion), SiCortex and Scalable Servers have started from scratch, rather than customising a previous product. The result, if all goes well, is that an organisation's übergeeks will no longer have to fight each other for time on the machine. And, in the not too distant future, lesser mortals will have the means to create movies beyond the imaginings of YouTube.