GAMING

CHAMPAIGN, IL -- The National Computational Science Alliance (Alliance) has added another Web-based tutorial and a Web video to its online materials designed to help organizations build, install, and use Access Grid nodes. All the tutorials and the video are available at . Once at the website, click on "Access Grid-in-a-Box Tutorials" and create a user login and password. The new tutorial, called "Overview for Decision Makers," targets managers who make purchasing decisions and need information to decide whether their organization should support an Access Grid connection, or node. It explains the benefits of the Access Grid, both as a tool for research and collaboration and as a means for cutting costs. The tutorial also helps non-technical managers understand the components of the Access Grid and the technologies that run it. "Many times, it is up to technical staff to explain the benefits and costs of the Access Grid to upper management," said Mary Bea Walker, associate director of Education, Outreach and Training at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), the center that leads the Alliance. "This tutorial answers questions about how many people it takes to run an Access Grid node, estimated costs for maintenance and running events, and the many benefits of supporting a node." A three-minute video recently added to the website provides a visual overview of an Access Grid node, the equipment used in a node, and the typical set-up of a room designed to house a node. The new tutorial and video join four tutorials that have been available for the last six months. Those tutorials cover building and installing an Access Grid node, operating a node, producing Access Grid events, and planning Access Grid events. A troubleshooting tutorial will be added to the website later this year. The tutorials are part of a comprehensive Alliance effort to develop and deploy software that will make it easier and quicker for communities to take advantage of new Alliance technologies. Called the In-a-Box initiatives, the effort includes the Access Grid-in-a-Box software package and three others: Cluster-in-a-Box, Grid-in-a-Box, and Display Wall-in-a-Box. The Access Grid is an integrated, interactive audio and video environment that supports distributed group meetings, remote collaborative research and visualization, and distance education. Argonne National Laboratory leads the Alliance Access Grid project. Ninety-eight sites in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia, and South America have Access Grid nodes and some sites operate multiple nodes. For more on the Access Grid, see http://www.accessgrid.org/.