ECONOMICS

A new three-year joint initiative between the Government of Alberta, Silicon Graphics (NYSE: SGI) 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(R) Origin(R) family servers and SGI(R) Altix(TM) 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).