The idea of grid computing - in which apps draw their processing power across the network rather than direct from the device - has been around for some time, but mostly with PCs in mind.
Intel says it\'s working on bringing the same idea to smartphones and netbooks.
Intel\'s Research Berkeley Lab calls it Clone Cloud, and the goal is to execute rich apps on mobile devices by \'off-loading computation to available cloud resources in nearby datacenters\'.
The Clone Cloud paradigm borrows ideas from grid computing and apps hosting to effectively \'clone\' an entire set of data applications from the device to the cloud and \'selectively execute some operations on the clones, reintegrating results back to the mobile device,\' according to Intel.
One key challenge: sharing resources without compromising on security and privacy. Another challenge: helping users understand maintain the balance between owning their data and the convenience of being able to access their apps from any device.