ACADEMIA

Foundry Networks, Inc. a performance and total solutions leader for end-to-end switching and routing, announced today that its industry-leading high-performance Layer 2/3 Ethernet switches will provide the network infrastructure for FlashMob I, a supercomputer to be created on April 3, 2004 by hundreds of volunteers using ordinary laptop PCs. FlashMob I will be the first supercomputer of its kind, and will attempt to rank among the Top 500 fastest and most powerful supercomputers on earth. Sponsored by the University of San Francisco (USF), the FlashMob I event will take place on the USF campus, using student and faculty-designed open-source software and Foundry's award-winning switching technology. A FlashMob supercomputer is created by connecting a virtually infinite number of computers via a high-speed LAN, to work together as a single supercomputer. A FlashMob computer is temporary and organized ad hoc for the purpose of working on a single problem. It is designed to allow almost anyone to create a supercomputer in a matter of hours using commercially available computing and networking components. "This is a radical new idea in supercomputing, as well as an important scientific and social experiment," said John Witchel, co-creator of FlashMob supercomputing. "The goal of the FlashMob I project is to demonstrate the viability of widespread supercomputing. We hope to give ordinary citizens the power to explore and address problems that are most important to them -- whether it's a high-school science class looking to participate in study of global warming, or a family impacted by breast cancer, or even a chess club looking to build an electronic grand-master. In short, we want to democratize supercomputing." "FlashMob Computing was effectively invented in the course of a classroom discussion," said Pat Miller, USF lecturer and computer scientist at the Center for Applied Scientific Computing at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. "A student posited that one could break into the Top 500, by simply inviting people to come together to create a supercomputer for a few hours." To support FlashMob I's requirements for hundreds of reliable, high-speed network connections that are quick and simple to set up and manage, Foundry is providing its high-density FastIron(R) 1500 Layer 2/3 switches with Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet modules. The switches are interconnected via 10 Gigabit Ethernet to enable a very high-speed switch fabric. Foundry's FastIron switches are designed to deliver unparalleled switching performance, port density, and advanced networking features such as sFlow (RFC3176) which provides real-time, "always-on" network monitoring and management without impacting performance. "FlashMob I is a striking example of the new applications people are creating for high-performance networking," said Ken Cheng, vice president of marketing for Foundry. "Foundry is committed to offering the supercomputing, grid and cluster computing community with the high-performance, affordable networking solutions they need to support high-bandwidth applications. We are delighted to provide the network foundation for this historic supercomputing event." For more information about FlashMob I, or to sign up to participate in this historic event please visit http://www.flashmobcomputing.org/ .