The term metaverse is made up of the Greek word "meta", meaning in the middle or between, and "verse", the abbreviation for universe - a kind of parallel universe in which the internet comes very close to reality in the form of a 5D virtual reality space.

The metaverse was created back in the early 1980s, but it is only now becoming a reality. Bloomberg Intelligence estimates the sales potential for the gaming, entertainment, social media and AR & VR hardware segments alone at 783 billion dollars in 2024. However, the industry is also increasingly discovering the metaverse and the merging of the digital and physical worlds for itself. Their goal: more efficiency in all processes. In addition to the virtual worlds in which people will meet friends in the future, there are numerous application scenarios for industry, such as remote support for the maintenance of complex systems or the creation of a digital twin of production, including the supply chain, infrastructure and value creation processes.

Potential of a metaverse for companies

For companies and entire industries, the metaverse could offer economic added value, especially where interaction and exchange play a decisive role: along the supply chain, in purchasing and after-sales or in the coordination of suppliers.

The metaverse is based on several levels and will find its way into many areas of life.

© Rutronik

It enables companies to save time previously spent traveling - which will have a major impact on customer service and sales. Collaboration between colleagues and with business partners can be optimized and the need for office space reduced. Interactive simulations can accelerate training and education and lead to better results by enabling employees to learn how to operate equipment as they would in the real world or practice a sales pitch with key accounts. Information on highly complex machines and systems no longer needs to be exchanged in the form of abstract data sheets; instead, machines can be viewed from any angle in a matter of seconds. This immediately gives a precise idea of their size, functionality or integration into the production line.

Real building blocks for virtual worlds

Even though the metaverse is virtual, it is based on hardware. To be able to enter these worlds as an avatar and interact with others - for example when a service technician repairs a system together with the customer - users need gadgets and computer hardware such as graphics cards, VR headsets, high-speed internet connections and high-end computers. However, most current components are not powerful enough for the immense amounts of data.

The Internet and today's data centers also have neither the speed nor the capacity for truly permanent immersive computing that people can access in real time. According to Raja Koduri, Senior Vice President and General Manager Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics Group at Intel, this would require a 1000-fold increase in computing power compared to the current state of the art. And that will take time: "A standard Moore's Law curve will only give us eight- or ten-fold growth in the next five years," said Koduri in an interview at the end of 2021.

In order to reduce communication latency to almost zero, data centers must also be located in close proximity to users. For an intelligent, secure and decentralized network, edge and cloud computing devices and servers in multiple locations will be connected via the cloud. Cloud providers will likely connect dozens of distributed data centers in a single city to achieve the fast response times and low latency required for new edge computing services.

The fast response times and low latencies for the metaverse can only be achieved with edge cloud servers.

© Kontron Embedded Computers

As metaverse applications bring high-speed data closer to the end user, there is a growing need for server operators to create an open source-based infrastructure to meet the performance requirements of the metaverse. This is because open source technologies and projects enable companies to accelerate the time to market for new applications, so that investments in infrastructure pay off more quickly. At the same time, this creates the basis for a collaborative industry model that enables better interoperability, scalability and programmability.