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DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION
FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY /
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Applications:
ALBERTA RESEARCHERS ACCELERATE
RESULTS WITH GRID INITIATIVE
A new three-year joint initiative between the government of Alberta,
Silicon
Graphics and the University of Alberta will make it easier for Alberta
researchers, universities and organizations to use Grid computing to solve
complex scientific problems.
The project means computing specialists can use an enhanced software
framework
for partnering with researchers, facilitating easy access to high performance
computing (HPC) systems, including supercomputers and Grid computing systems.
The project will simplify the effort required by Alberta researchers to
harness all the resources of WestGrid or other HPC infrastructure to process
their data.
"Grid computing has the potential to make it easier for researchers to
tackle
problems we once thought were impossible," said Victor Doerksen, minister of
Alberta Innovation and Science. "This project brings together the high-tech
infrastructure of Grid computing with the researchers who can capitalize on
the technology. The Government of Alberta is pleased to support such a
valuable partnership."
Grid computing is an approach by which the Internet or dedicated networks
are
used to interconnect a wide variety of geographically distributed
computational resources, such as supercomputers, computer clusters, storage
systems and visualization systems, and present them as a single, unified
resource. The Grid computing concept offers access to resources irrespective
of their physical location, allowing remote customers to tackle large
computational problems, quickly access large bodies of data or tap into remote
graphics power.
SGI CEO and Chairman Bob Bishop added, "At SGI, it is our mission to
provide
the computing platform that underlies scientific and creative progress in the
digital world of the 21st century. We are deeply supportive of the WestGrid
project and, of Alberta's role in driving the innovation and discovery
process."
Current software tools are difficult to use. In order to make it easier for
researchers to use a Grid such as WestGrid, new software tools will be
developed in consultation with Alberta researchers. Ultimately, the new tools
will enable the research community of chemists, physicists, biologists and
health-care researchers to fully exploit the capabilities of WestGrid and HPC
platforms as well as increase the size and complexity of the problems that
they can carry out. The first phase of the project will work with chemists and
physicists.
"The University of Alberta is proud to be a partner in this innovative
effort," said University of Alberta President Rod Fraser. "Our computational
scientists are internationally recognized for their cutting edge approaches to
complex computing problems. This funding will lead to the development of a new
software framework and new applications that will allow more of their
colleagues to join them in becoming world leaders in computational-based
research."
SGI pioneered the remote and distributed use of computational and
visualization power and brings that expertise to Grid computing. The
architecture of SGI Origin family servers and SGI Altix family of servers and
supercomputers brings the high-bandwidth, low-latency capacity to solve
big-data problems in a manner compatible with the Grid. The WestGrid project
is another proofpoint that reaffirms SGI's strong leadership position on the
forefront of Grid computing.
Under the agreement, the Alberta Government and SGI will each provide
funding
of $225,000 towards the project. SGI will also support the project with
$100,000 of in-kind use of equipment. The University of Alberta will provide
$50,000 as well as $169,000 worth of in-kind contributions (researchers and
equipment).
About Silicon Graphics
SGI, also known as Silicon Graphics Inc, is the world's leader in
high-performance computing, visualization and storage. SGI's vision is to
provide technology that enables the most significant scientific and creative
breakthroughs of the 21st century. Whether it's sharing images to aid in brain
surgery, finding oil more efficiently, studying global climate or enabling the
transition from analog to digital broadcasting, SGI is dedicated to addressing
the next class of challenges for scientific, engineering and creative users.
With offices worldwide, the company is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif.,
and can be found on the Web at www.sgi.com.
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