Grid computing originated in America's NASA program. To search for signs of life in the limitless universe, NASA linked up 300,000 home computer users, who agreed to "contribute" their computer down time, so that NASA data could be processed and compared, thereby greatly accelerating research speed.
所謂「網格運算」，可以追溯到美國太空總署的「家庭衛星計畫」──為了在無垠的宇宙中搜尋外太空生物的蛛絲馬跡，美國太空總署連結了數十萬電腦用戶，在他們不使用電腦時將電腦「貢獻」出來，讓太空總署的資料可以在上面進行運算和比對，以大幅提昇研究速度。