In a significant milestone for scientific Grid computing, eight major computing centres successfully completed a challenge to sustain a continuous data flow of 600 megabytes per second (MB/s) on average for 10 days from CERN in Geneva, Switzerland to seven sites in Europe and the United States. The total amount of data transmitted during this challenge - 500 terabytes - would take about 250 years to download using a typical 512 kilobit per second household broadband connection.

Antauris AG, a German high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure and support consulting firm, will partner with Cray to market the Cray XD1 supercomputer, an entry-level and mid-market HPC system.

When it comes to high-performance computing, the interconnect architecture linking the computing nodes significantly affects the overall performance of the system. As part of the International Supercomputer Conference, a one-day tutorial on "Interconnection Architectures in Practice" will be held Tuesday, June 21, 2005, in Heidelberg's Print Media Academy. ISC2005, which marks its 20th anniversary this year, will be held June 21-24 in Heidelberg. Advance registration, at discounted rates, is now open for both the tutorial and the three-day conference.

Sun is helping the High Performance Computing Virtual Laboratory (HPCVL) to more rapidly pursue discovery and research projects with the selection of Sun technologies within its world-leading High Performance Computing (HPC) Center. The expansion is expected to quadruple current computing power and storage, and speeding results for researchers working on complex scientific and economic problems.

Absoft Corporation and Etnus LLC have entered into a reseller agreement through which Absoft will offer Etnus' market-leading TotalView debugger to its customer-base of scientists and engineers. TotalView will be a premier component in forthcoming "Enhanced Editions" of the Absoft High Performance Computing (HPC) Software Developers Kit (SDK) for IBM Linux on POWER solutions.

Fujitsu Siemens Computers has impressively demonstrated the power of its PRIMERGY BX660 server blade worldwide by setting a new record in the MAPI Messaging Benchmark (MMB3). In January this year, it achieved the outstanding result of 9,500 MMB3 users in the single server category, which is the best mark for all published 4-way servers, in the Exchange Server 2003 MMB3.

Scientists at Ohio State University have taken a step toward the development of powerful new computers by making tiny holes that contain nothing at all. The holes - dark spots in an egg carton-shaped surface of laser light - could one day cradle atoms for quantum computing. Worldwide, scientists are racing to develop computers that exploit the quantum mechanical properties of atoms, explained Greg Lafyatis, associate professor of physics at Ohio State. These so-called quantum computers could enable much faster computing than is possible today. One strategy for making quantum computers involves packaging individual atoms on a chip so that laser beams can read quantum data.

HP has signed a $48.5 million contract with the European Commission in consortium with Steria to develop two important central information systems, the second generation of the Schengen Information System (SIS II) and the Visa Information System (VIS).

Nevada's Desert Research Institute (DRI) has chosen the Cray XD1 supercomputer as a key computational platform for carrying out environmental research that involves high-resolution modelling and complex forecasting. By delivering superior performance and processing scalability, DRI's 60-processor Cray XD1 system will help investigators find solutions to pressing issues related to the earth's atmosphere, soil, hydrology and ecosystems.

Sun Microsystemshas introduced its first dual-core server based on the new Dual-Core AMD Opteron processor, and announced dual-core for its entire x64 product line.

DataSynapse, a provider of Grid computing solutions for the virtual enterprise, and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a global expert in IT consulting, services and business process outsourcing, have entered into a strategic alliance to offer TCS' international customers and prospects Grid computing software and services.

To coincide with the official introduction of Microsoft's new 64-bit Windows Server 2003 x64 Editions and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Fujitsu Siemens Computers announced that a wide range of its servers, workstations and professional PCs support the new software. Some of the IT company's 64-bit PRIMERGY servers and CELSIUS workstations are already available, while the first ESPRIMO Professional PCs with 64 Bit operating system will enter the market in July.

Cray has signed an agreement with the U.S. Government to continue the development of next-generation supercomputer technologies. The agreement calls for Cray and the Government to each invest approximately $17.0 million over the next two years.

Global supercomputer leader Cray announced the appointment of high performance computing (HPC) industry veteran Dr. Margaret (Peg) Williams as senior vice president responsible for engineering. In her new role, Williams will lead the company's software and hardware engineering efforts for the current Cray X1E, XT3 and XD1 supercomputers, as well as Cray's research and development projects, including those known as Cascade and Rainier.

HP shared the no. 1 position in worldwide server revenue and continued its no. 1 position in worldwide server shipments for the 12th consecutive quarter, according to first quarter 2005 figures released today by IDC.

HP has made available a new entry-level workstation and desktop PC that feature the latest Intel technology including the new dual-core Intel Pentium D processor and 945G chipset.

AXS-One a provider of high performance records compliance management software solutions,did release its Rapid-AXS for delivering user-configurable search performance. The new technology offers an high level of performance for search and retrieval of archived data.

HP has partnered with hard disk drive vendors Fujitsu, Hitachi and Seagate to accelerate adoption of the next generation of hard drive technology for servers and storage. The new small form factor (SFF) 2.5-inch, 10K RPM hard drive, developed by the partners and first unveiled by HP on March 14, is designed to deliver increased performance, improved server/storage density, greater thermal efficiency and lower total cost of ownership for enterprise computing. HP also plans to increase shipments of 3.5-inch, 15K RPM drives for server and storage applications requiring the highest levels of system performance.

Orion Multisystems is shipping the 96-node deskside Cluster Workstation, a personal supercomputer that fits under a desk and is the highest performance general-purpose computing platform that can be plugged into a standard power outlet. The launch follows a successful introduction last year of Orion's 12-node desktop Cluster Workstation, a system now in use by customers in multiple countries and market segments worldwide, including life sciences, geosciences, engineering, manufacturing, financial analytics, media and entertainment.

SGI's Altix 350 midrange server and SGI InfiniteStorage Shared Filesystem CXFS will serve as the foundation of new products from IPEX Information Technology Group, one of Australia's leading Information Technology (IT) solution providers. As part of a three-year OEM agreement, IPEX will license SGI technologies for use in the IPEX Cenix 350 server and IPEX CXFS filesystem.

IBM and Bycast Inc. have launched new solutions designed to help deliver improved patient care through a Grid-powered storage system that enables Picture Archive and Communication System (PACS) applications and other systems to more readily access fixed-content data including medical files, documents and images. IBM Healthcare and Life Science’s Grid Medical Archive Solution (GMAS), based on IBM’s TotalStorage and eServer and Bycast Inc.’s StorageGRID software, provides flexible and scalable virtualized storage solutions for medium to large health care organisations and hospital networks.

Two University of Iowa (UI) researchers recently received about US$115,000 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Department of Energy (DOE) for work in 2005 that may help link U.S. scientists to particle physics experiments in Europe and make the UI a powerhouse in data-intensive, scientific computing.

Particle physicists at the University of Southampton are embarking on a new attempt to solve the mysteries of quarks. This is made possible by the recent completion of the three most powerful supercomputers ever applied to this problem, one of which is sited at the University of Edinburgh for use by the Southampton team led by Professor Chris Sachrajda and Dr. Jonathan Flynn and its six partners in the UK Quantum Chromodynamics (UKQCD) collaboration.

The Globus Consortium announced three new enterprise-level development projects for the Globus Toolkit. In addition, the Consortium is launching a new monthly newsletter on the latest advances in open Grid technologies.

The Enterprise Grid Alliance (EGA) has announced the industry's first Reference Model for enterprise Grids, laying the foundation for standardized solutions that will enable organisations to take advantage of the many benefits of Grid computing. The Reference Model provides a specific context for describing requirements, standards, comparing technologies and implementing Grid solutions. The model delivers a framework and set of customer-based requirements needed to accelerate enterprise Grid adoption. Included in its three main components are a common lexicon of Grid terms; a model that classifies the management and lifecycles of the components required for enterprise Grids; and a set of use cases that demonstrate the requirements for enterprise Grid computing. Like all of the EGA's work, the Reference Model is vendor neutral, technology and implementation agnostic, and will be continuously updated as the Grid marketplace evolves.

Deutsche Post World Net, one of the largest high-performing logistics providers in the world, will use Oracle Application Server 10g as the foundation for its standards-based technology infrastructure. Deustche Post required a flexible infrastructure to help reduce the time and cost of integrating the company's many business systems, subsidiaries and applications, resulting from its aggressive merger and acquisition growth strategy.

Customers using DataSynapse Inc.'s GRIDesign Lifecycle to set the pace for their service-oriented architecture (SOA) strategies are achieving repeatable success across the enterprise and speeding time to value of virtual-enabled application execution. GRIDesign Lifecycle is a patent-pending, best practices methodology that helps organisations identify, Grid-enable and transition into production the applications that yield the highest business benefit when incorporated in a virtual, scalable application infrastructure.

During its Network Computing '05 (NC05Q2) launch, Sun Microsystems Inc. has announced momentum for its recently introduced Sun Grid utility computing offerings and new additions to its Grid computing family of products. Sun now provides customers with more options than ever before, to address their Grid computing needs.

Quocirca released a research report on the world-wide perceptions and uptake of Grid Computing - commissioned by Oracle Corp. In the third quarter of 2004, Quocirca reported on the state of Grid Computing adoption in Europe through a set of key market indicators that collectively made up the “Grid Index”. In March 2005, these same indicators provide clear insights into the way Grid related activity is developing, but this time on a global basis.

Using GridServer Virtual Enterprise Edition from DataSynapse , organisations are realizing the benefits of a true service-oriented architecture (SOA), from increased business agility and accelerated time-to-market to improved return on investment of existing IT assets.

The Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) has announced at its 2005 international symposium on Computational Challenges in Systems Biology that ISB's Human Proteome Folding Project launched on IBM's World Community Grid in November 2004 has already predicted 50,000 protein structures.

The development of the Semantic Grid will be addressed at an international conference next week, highlighting its progress towards a high degree of easy-to-use and seamless automation which will enable flexible collaborations and computations on a global scale. In his invited talk on "The Semantic Grid: Past, Present and Future" at the 2nd European Semantic Web Conference in Heraklion, Greece, on Wednesday 1 June, Professor David De Roure, Head of Grid and Pervasive Computing at the School of Electronics & Computer Science (ECS) at the University of Southampton, will describe his vision of a large-scale, self-managing, collaborative Grid and the advances that are being made towards its realisation.

Recently, World Community Grid enlisted its 100,000th computer and its first university partner, Marist College.

Sarvega's XML Guardian Gateway has been registered as In Evaluation at EAL 4+ under the Common Criteria scheme administered by the Communications Security Establishment (CSE). The company entered into the evaluation as part of its commitment to deliver the industry's most secure XML Networking products for governments and enterprises world-wide. The Common Criteria for IT Security Evaluation, also known as ISO standard 15408, were initially developed by the national security organisations of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and The Netherlands and is recognized by twenty-one countries today. The Common Criteria are a comprehensive set of guidelines which provide consistent criteria for evaluating security products. They provide a structured framework for the rigorous analysis and testing of IT security products across a defined set of requirements and functionality.

Sarvega has announced results of an independent product security assessment of its XML Guardian Gateway.

Bull Evidian has made available AccessMaster 7.0, the new release of its Identity and Access Management software suite, and confirms its leading position worldwide among the suppliers of Identity and Access Management (IAM) software. Bull Evidian also has launched "IDENTITY AND ACCESS MANAGEMENT NOW", an initiative to boost the deployment of identity and access management in large organisations. "IAM NOW" indeed constitutes a programme dedicated to large organisations wishing to reinforce their agility, reduce their costs, increase their overall security level and strengthen regulatory compliance.

China and France have taken a step towards greatly enhanced co-operation in the field of middleware technologies and distributed systems with the signing on 15 May of a memorandum of understanding between two of the countries' leading technical research institutes.

Today the typical full car simulation model size is 1.1 million elements and can be run overnight. In recent tests, SGI with ESI Group successfully ran a model of 9.1 million elements at 338.20 gigaflops per second performance on an SGI Altix 3700 Bx2 server with 512GB memory running PAM-CRASH 2004 on 512 Intel Itanium 2 processors.

According to the Austrian newspaper Kärntner Kleinen Zeitung, Quant-X has entered bankruptcy. The company, which delivered several supercomputers in the past, has a debt of about 2 million euro. Compusys PLC (Quant-X has been a member of the Compusys group) will continue the European distribution of Myricom product including warranty and services for the existing Quant-X reseller base.

Universidad de Chile and Universidad de Buenos Aires recently became two of the newest members of the Gelato Federation, an international organisation dedicated to advancing Linux on Itanium. Universidad de Chile and Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA) recently became two of the newest members of the Gelato Federation, an international organisation composed of leading universities, supercomputing centres, national labs, and research institutes, dedicated to advancing Linux on the Intel Itanium processor. Also announced at a visit to UBA on April 18 and a press conference held at Universidad de Chile on April 21 were donations by HP, Gelato's founding sponsor, of HP Integrity servers to both universities.

PathScale has announced unprecedented results on industry-standard benchmark tests by its new InfiniPath cluster interconnect. The InfiniPath HTX Adapter is a low-latency cluster interconnect for InfiniBand that plugs into standard HyperTransport technology-based HTX slots on AMD Opteron processor-based servers. Over 20 Linux system vendors around the world have committed to reselling InfiniPath, which is immediately orderable.