AUTOMOTIVE

Rapid Prototypes is using Gateway Processing on Demand(SM) (GPOD) grid service, backed by United Device's Grid MP Alliance(TM) platform, to develop some of the world's fastest commercial field programmable gateway array (FPGA) applications. FPGAs are integrated circuits (ICs) 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. "GPOD allows us to simulate very high-speed electronics, without investing in expensive new hardware," said Brian Von Herzen, Ph.D., president of Rapid Prototypes. "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." The Gateway Processing on Demand(SM) service is competitively priced based on processor hours used and does not require any long-term or minimum-usage commitments. For more information, go to http://gateway.com/work/services/pod.shtml or www.ud.com/alliance .