????還記得泰坦嗎,？這可不是那支咸魚翻身的橄欖球隊。這是臺超級計算機,，去年11月,，媒體大幅報道了泰坦一舉成為全球最快的計算機。泰坦的計算速度非?？植?，處理能力相當于50萬臺筆記本電腦。

????不過,，如果沒有合適的管理軟件，如此強大的計算機也會英雄無用武之地,。軟件是未來高性能計算機的關鍵部分——不過它經(jīng)常被忽略,。隨著越來越多的產(chǎn)品和服務遷往云端,，軟件對各行各業(yè)的影響將更加重要。自適應計算（Adaptive Computing）公司首席執(zhí)行官羅比?克萊德稱：“高性能計算和云計算之間的界限越來越模糊,?！弊赃m應計算是一家軟件企業(yè),，產(chǎn)品能幫助超級計算機和云計算服務器提高效率,。1月30日，該公司展示了自行研發(fā)的軟件,，能將泰坦的運行效率從70%提升到95%?？巳R德稱,，用來優(yōu)化泰坦的軟件和用來優(yōu)化云計算的軟件非常像,。

????這一點很重要，因為隨著運算能力日益強大,，最大的挑戰(zhàn)將從提升原始處理能力變成優(yōu)化已有系統(tǒng),?！拔覀兗磳⑦M入一個運算幾乎無止境的世界，”云存儲公司Box的首席執(zhí)行官艾倫?列維稱,?！肮芾磉\算的工具正成為下一個限幅器,。”列維稱,，Box公司有數(shù)十名員工每天就在專門思考這一個問題,。

????列維表示,，計算機管理系統(tǒng)的市場不斷增長，而且這一趨勢將持續(xù),。隨著市場開始需要管理計算機管理系統(tǒng)的系統(tǒng)等等,，科技公司又會有新的業(yè)務。萊維說：“我們目前處于這個問題的新層次,。而在此之上，又將有一個新層次,，直到我們?nèi)祟惐惶蕴?。”他這么說并不完全是玩笑話,。

????這類軟件應幫助企業(yè)向用戶提供更好的服務?？巳R德說,，以一家憑借云端程序提供語音識別服務的公司為例，如果支撐該服務的軟件能高效地為各任務確定優(yōu)先級,，該服務就能更快地進行識別。而用戶喜歡速度,。

????這種看似遙遠的軟件還有一大好處：它將提升云端巨大運算能力的可訪問性,。 “三、四十年前，必須建造一臺大型主機才能進行復雜的運算,，”列維說,。這些大型主機耗資數(shù)千萬美元?！叭缃?，完全可以在別人的云端進行虛擬運算。你只要為你在各個獨立的時間段內(nèi)使用的運算付費,?！倍S著軟件日益改進,，云管理日益完善，越來越多的人都可以用上它的運算能力,。

????這樣一來,，各公司將能圍繞運行復雜程序得出的發(fā)現(xiàn)進行創(chuàng)新，而不至于在這個過程中破產(chǎn),。這將反過來就能使各公司能提供更好的服務。直到計算機把我們?nèi)宽斕?。（財富中文網(wǎng)）

????譯者：項航

????Remember the Titan? No, not the comeback football team. The supercomputer that generated headlines last November for ranking as the world's fastest. Titan can crunch so many calculations, it has the equivalent processing power of 500,000 laptops.

????All that computing might is for naught without software capable of managing it. Software is a major—if often unsung—factor in the future of high-power computing. It will matter increasingly to businesses of all kinds as more and more products and services move into the cloud. "The line between high performance computing and cloud is blurring," says Rob Clyde, CEO of Adaptive Computing, a company that builds software to increase efficiency in supercomputers and cloud-based servers. Today, Adaptive revealed it developed the software that boosted Titan's efficiency from 70% to about 95%. The software used to make Titan tick is similar, Clyde says, to software that optimizes the cloud.

????That matters because as computing power gets more and more robust, the biggest challenge will switch from increasing raw processing brawn to optimizing the systems that we have. "We're moving to a world where computing is almost sort of indistinguishable from being infinite," says Aaron Levie, CEO of cloud storage company Box. "The tools to manage that computing are becoming the next limiter." Box, Levie says, devotes dozens of employees who spend their days thinking about that single problem.

????There is a growing market for systems that manage computers, Levie says, and that trend will continue. A slice of the tech economy will build out as the market begins to demand systems that manage the systems that manage computers, and so on. "We are now at a new meta layer of this problem. After this, it will be a new meta layer on top that, until we as humans are obsolete," Levie says. He is only partially joking.

????Such software should help companies deliver better services to consumers. For example, says Clyde, take a company that offers a speech-recognition service powered by programs in the cloud. If the company supports the service with software that efficiently prioritizes tasks, the service will find words faster. Consumers love speed.

????This remote-seeming software has another big benefit: It will boost the accessibility of massive computing power in the cloud. "Thirty or forty years ago, you had to basically build out a mainframe to run complex computations," Levie says. Those mainframes cost tens of millions of dollars. "Today, you can just run it in a virtual job in somebody else's cloud. You literally only pay for the amount of computing you use in a very discrete time period." Even better software, better cloud management, will let more and more people use its computational power.

????That will give companies the power to innovate around discoveries made from running involved programs without bankrupting them in the process. That should, in turn, enable companies to deliver better services. That is, of course, until the computers render us useless.