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DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION
FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY /
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Special Features:
THIS WEEK'S BRIEF ANALYSES OF
RECENT Gridtoday NEWS ITEMS
By Rolf McClellan
Following are brief evaluations of recent news stories from Gridtoday. Rolf
McClellan has nearly 20 years of experience in the network and computer
industry. www.mcclellanconsulting.com
Cisco Intros Innovations For Catalyst Intelligent Switches
(03/19/04)
Cisco Systems Inc announced a wide range of enhancements for its Catalyst
Ethernet Switching products. The enhancements that have implications for
cluster computing and Internet data centers include: IPsec and SSL security
Service Modules for the Catalyst 6500, a 48-port SFP fiber-based GbE module
for the 6500, a new 10-Slot chassis and Supervisor Engine for the Catalyst
4500, 10 Gigabit Ethernet uplink capability for the Catalyst 3750, and 10
Gigabit Ethernet XENPAK modules that support copper or multi-mode fiber
cabling.
Analysis: The 10 GbE uplink for the 3750 answers recent announcements from
Extreme and Foundry of GbE/10Gbe edge switches. The 10GBase-CX4 XENPAK module
is list priced at $600, which greatly reduces the cost of high density 10 GbE
configurations in data centers and computational clusters with the proviso
that the lengths of eight pair copper Infiniband cable can be held under 15
meters.
Novell Ships GroupWise For Linux (03/19/04)
Novell has announced GroupWise 6.5 for Linux -- a collaboration software
suite
for Linux servers/desktops that includes e-mail, calendar, instant messaging,
contact management, document management and workflow services.
Analysis: As the range of Linux business software becomes broader, the
stage
is gradually being set for Linux to penetrate the desktop market.
Sun Microsystems, Vignette Leverage Joint Technologies (03/18/04)
Sun Microsystems Inc and Vignette Corp announced plans to jointly develop a
collaboration solution based on an internal Sun version of Vignette Business
Workspaces, called the SunWeb Collaboration Suite. The target market is
medium-sized to large organizations.
Analysis: Presumably, the Sun/Vignette solution will leverage J2EE and
Sun's
Java Desktop System for Linux as well as Solaris, offering an "open
architecture" alternative to GroupWise.
BitKeeper Doubles Pace Of Linux Development (03/18/04)
The pace of the Linux kernel development has more than doubled since Linus
Torvalds switched to the BitKeeper source management system two years ago.
Analysis: Maybe Microsoft should adopt the use of Bitkeeper for Longhorn
(Windows 2006).
TeraGrid Targets Include Galaxy Formation, Pollution Cleanup
(03/17/04)
The first computing resources of the National Science Foundation's (NSF)
TeraGrid became fully available for scientific use in January. Linux clusters
at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) and the San
Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC are now being used in a variety of research
areas including studies of galaxy formation, pollution cleanup, seismology,
and biomolecular dynamics.
Analysis: 2004 looks like the year in which Grid computing starts to offer
generally-available remote access to world-class supercomputing clusters for a
wide range of off-site research efforts
IBM, University Of Oregon Build 'Iconic Grid' (03/17/04)
The University of Oregon, Electrical Geodesics Inc (EGI) and IBM announced
a
new project that uses Grid computing to facilitate the diagnosis of brain
conditions, including Epilepsy, stroke and depression. The ICONIC (Integrated
Cognitive Neuroscience, Informatics and Computation) Grid leverages IBM
servers running Linux, WebSphere Application Server and the open source Globus
Toolkit.
Analysis: Brain wave analysis is an interesting compute-intensive
application.
If this is successful, Grid computing could become an common diagnostic tool
for patient data analysis and might even eventually play a role in monitoring
of hospital patients.
University Of Texas, IBM To Build Largest Campus Grid (03/17/04)
IBM and The University of Texas announced plans to build the largest
university Grid computing project in the nation. UT Grid will unite the
computational resources distributed across an extended campus serving
approximately 50,000 students and 20,000 faculty/staff members. UT Grid will
use a combination of open source tools, TACC developed tools (including
Gridflow and GridPort3) and commercial software (including United Devices Grid
MP).
Analysis: The UT Grid is an good example of a general purpose Grid
infrastructure created to stimulate innovative applications of the technology
versus a Grid built to focus on a specific problem area.
CTC Opens Second Session Of Windows HPC Workshop (03/17/04)
The Cornell Theory Center (CTC) has opened an additional session of the
Windows HPC training workshop scheduled for April. The free workshop will
focus on implementing HPC on Windows-based clusters.
Analysis: CTC has received over $60M from Microsoft, Intel and Dell to
develop
and promote cluster computing solutions based on the Wintel platform. CTC
plays the role of a placeholder for Microsoft as it continues work on a
Windows clustering tool kit. However, Windows is likely to remain more
relevant to enterprise Grids of desktop computers than it is to computational
clusters.
Enterprise Edition Of Poseidon For UML Available Online (03/16/04)
Gentleware AG is introducing Enterprise Edition of Poseidon for UML, a
modeling tool for object-oriented software development that is compatible with
the forthcoming OMG standard, UML 2.0. The new version supports collaborative
modeling and data interchange with other modeling tools via XML.
Analysis: This announcement triggered a hit on "XML" and "Java" as an
object-
oriented language.
MiLAN Introduces New Gigabit Ethernet Switch Family (03/16/04)
MiLAN Technology Inc announced it's new family of cost effective, unmanaged
Layer 2 Gigabit Ethernet switches that feature 5 to 24 ports of
10/100/1000Base-TX.
Analysis: Commodity Ethernet switching is primarily suited for the SME
general
IT market.
BakBone Announces Comprehensive Support For Oracle 10g (03/16/04)
BakBone Software, provider of NetVault data backup and recovery software,
announced broad support for Oracle Database 10g across Linux, UNIX and Windows
platforms.
Analysis: This might be significant if the backup and restore function is
cluster-aware.
SweGrid Gives Researchers Computer With Superpower (03/15/04)
SweGrid, the Swedish subset of the European Grid computer network, will be
opened March 18. The network will connect clusters at the six national centers
and will be first used in conjunction with an experiment at CERN. SweGrid also
will be available for research in other areas, such as genetics, meteorology
or climate research.
Analysis: Yet another new Grid coming on line.
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