China plans major computer grid linking top 100 universities
( 2003-09-25 11:36) (Xinhua)
China plans to build a powerful computer grid connecting 100 leading
universities in China by the year 2005 on the China Education and Research
Network, the Beijing- based English-language newspaper "China Daily" reported on
Thursday.
Describing the planned computer grid as the largest high- performance one in
the world, the newspaper said the grid, which works like a power grid, enables
computing resources distributed over a vast area to share resources and work
collaboratively and, therefore, is one of the most advanced computing
technologies.
The grid will be built by the Ministry of Education in cooperation with
semiconductor giant Intel, and representatives of the Chinese ministry and Intel
signed a memorandum of understanding on the project Wednesday, according to the
newspaper.
The grid is expected to have a peak-computing speed of more than 20,000
giga-floating point operations per second and a storage capacity of over 500
terabytes, exceeding the size of the world's biggest present grid in the United
States.
Wee Theng Tan, president of Intel China, said his company is extremely
committed to this project.
The 12 universities involved in the first phase of the project will each get
two supercomputers equipped with Intel's Intanium 2
processors.
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