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DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION
FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY /
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Applications:
RAPID PROTOTYPES CHOOSES GATEWAY
GRID FOR HIGH-SPEED SIMS
Rapid Prototypes is analyzing the design of backplanes for next-generation
optical switching equipment - and saving hundreds of thousands of dollars in
the process - thanks to its use of the Grid computing service from Gateway
Inc and United Devices, leaders in secure Grid solutions.
Rapid Prototypes is using Gateway Processing on Demand (GPOD), backed by
United Device's Grid MP Alliance platform, to develop some of the world's
fastest commercial field programmable gateway array (FPGA) applications.
FPGAs are integrated circuits (IC) that can be programmed in the field
after
they've been manufactured. They allow engineers to design specialized ICs that
can later be produced hard-wired in large quantities for distribution to
computer manufacturers and end users. In this case, Rapid Prototypes is
analyzing backplane systems for next-generation Internet switching
equipment.
Web services, utility computing, .NET, CPU harvesting and distributed
computing are just a few of the technologies that fall under the Grid
computing umbrella. Gt04 -- a premiere enterprise Grid computing conference
targeting industrial and commercial users -- will gather experts, and outline
strategies and road maps for Grid deployment. For more information, visit
www.gt04.com.
Grid computing is here!
"GPOD allows us to simulate very high-speed electronics, without investing
in
expensive new hardware," said Brian Von Herzen, president of Rapid Prototypes
Inc. "Because the performance is faster with the Grid, we are able to produce
even higher quality results for our clients while passing on the cost savings
this speed of production allows."
Conceived as a technique to process information normally handled by
supercomputers, Grid computing links thousands of PCs to collectively share
processing power. Gateway's Grid service launched December 2002, joining
nearly 7,000 computers in Gateway retail stores across the United States. GPOD
ranks among the top 10 largest supercomputers in the world by processing
power, producing more than 11 TFLOPS (trillion floating point operations per
second) at peak capacity, with most nodes averaging 2.0 GHz or better.
Rapid Prototypes conserves costs by renting just the amount of compute time
the company needs. In essence, Rapid achieves the computation power its
applications require without purchasing a large hardware infrastructure.
Gateway provides the hardware backbone for the GPOD service, while United
Device's Grid MP Alliance platform provides the virtual operating system for
the Grid.
"The beauty of this solution is that Rapid Prototypes can quickly design
integrated circuits without investing upfront capital building their own
technology infrastructure," said Scott Weinbrandt, senior vice president of
Gateway's Enterprise Systems Division. "Companies pay only for the processing
power they need to solve their complex computational problems."
"This announcement demonstrates yet another application and industry that
can
exploit Grid computing to achieve tangible and significant business savings,"
said Paul Kirchoff, vice president of marketing at United Devices. "Electronic
design automation is a perfect example of such a compute-intensive application
area. This is real utility computing in action."
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