Grid

Question

When I look up the word "grid" used in texts concerning information technology, the definitions I've found are mostly of grid computing: the use of widely distributed computer resources to reach a common goal.

I wonder if the word used in reality is always that specific. Isn't it sometimes used in a more general way, like referring to network-linked computers and cell phones?

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

TakaI wonder if the word used in reality is always that specific.

Not at all. Lots of things are grids.

TakaIsn't it sometimes used in a more general way, like referring to network-linked computers and cell phones?

A computer network is a network. I think that in computing, "grid" is jargon with a limited meaning. It is a kind of grid, but you can't call it that. The phones, too, are on a network. The term is well established. Again, it is indeed a sort of grid. Something of that kind actually called a grid is the electrical distribution system. You can call the area covered by several radars linked together a grid. There is the Military Grid Reference System. You can be "off the grid" if you live in a cabin in the deep woods without electricity or telephone and find your own food. This grid is the one that the powers that be are supposed to monitor and control us with.

There always seems to be some reference to a real gridwork, a set of crisscrossed lines.

Grid

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