NTT Data is teaming up with Intel, Silicon Graphics (SGI) and
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone East (NTT East) to trial grid
computing in Japan.
The six-month trial will involve one million PCs and will be the
first such trial to be conducted in Japan, according to NTT
Data.
Grid computing is a way to create a virtual supercomputer by
connecting large numbers of PCs in different locations over a
shared network. The surplus processor power of each PC is combined
to provide large amounts of power for scientific research
applications and other data-intensive uses.
The trial will begin in the middle of 2002 and will link about one
million computers from households, corporations and academic
organisations, NTT Data said.
The research theme will be decided upon after discussion between
research and development centres in various fields, including
universities, the government and private sectors, the company
added.
"We are looking for a research project that will attract many PC
users," said Yoshinori Munakata, a spokesman for NTT Data. Although
the company is targeting the Japanese market for the trial, it will
also invite participants from across the world, he added.
By linking one million PCs - similar in scale to Intel's
peer-to-peer cancer research project - the trial's total processing
power is expected to match the Intel system's 65 Teraflops
(trillions of floating-point operations per second). This is five
times more powerful than the fastest existing supercomputer, NTT
Data said.
The company hopes to enter the grid computing business of providing
low-cost chip performance for corporate users and at the same time
return some benefits, as yet undisclosed, to the PC users who are
offering their chips.
"We see grid computing services as one of the prospective
businesses in the broadband era," Munakata said.
Alongside the tie-up with Intel, SGI and NTT East on technology and
marketing, NTT Data is in talks with two major US-based grid
computing companies to join the alliance, Munakata added.