Also the reasoning for 'either one or all' presupposes a Big Crunch cosmology in order to generate the energy for the required computing cycles.

Instead of dedicating computing cycles to removing errors caused by either the government or the ionosphere, G.P.S. navigation products can concentrate on faster and better directions.

In addition to the current position, inertial navigation systems also typically estimate a predicted position for future computing cycles.

But grid technology extends beyond harvesting unused computing cycles.

More than 1.4 million Internet-connected personal computer owners in 224 countries have teamed up to donate their otherwise unused computing cycles to help create the world's largest ad hoc supercomputer.

Members are wrangling valuable computing cycles out of machines in their offices, and a handful of Internet cafes have been drafted for the effort.

In the 1970s, as increasing powerful computers proliferated, the Japanese optical houses began to spare computing cycles to study the out-of-focus image.

This situation limited interactive development to those organizations that could afford to waste computing cycles: large universities for the most part.

They said, "I don't want to share my [computing] cycles with some guy across the country.

"These problems are already soaking up all the free computing cycles on supercomputers around the country."