[Biodevelopers] Preliminary Announcement: Setup of the Bioinformatics.Org Grid

[J.W. Bizzaro]

Greetings.

Bioinformatics.Org and collaborators have begun the setup of the
Bioinformatics.Org Grid.  The BiO Grid is/will be a loosely networked cluster of
heterogeneous computing technologies that can be accessed by members of the
Organization, free of charge.  This project is intended to expand the offerings
of The Open Lab, the collection of free and/or open services for bioinformatics
research, development and education.  And it will augment the mission of
Bioinformatics.Org: to lower the barrier to entering and participating in the
field of bioinformatics.

We announce here for the first time the participation of two for-profit
businesses in the development of the Bioinformatics.Org Grid: Xinit Systems and
GreenTea Technologies, Inc.  Xinit Systems (http://xinitsystems.com/) is a
UK-based manufacturer of Linux systems.  As part of the collaboration on the BiO
Grid, Xinit has provided an 8-node blade cluster and a 0.8 TB RAID array,
located at their facilities in the UK and accessible via the Internet.

GreenTea Technologies, Inc. (http://greenteatech.com/) is a California and
China-based manufacturer of distributed computing software, particularly
GreenTea.  As part of their collaboration on the BiO Grid, GreenTea has provided
licenses for the Xinit cluster and other systems on the Grid, as they are added.

At this time, the Xinit cluster has been set up and is reachable on the
Internet.  And, GreenTea Technologies, Inc. is currently installing their
software.

All formal organizations participating in the development of The Open Lab have
agreements with Bioinformatics.Org through the Co-Lab Program.  Currenltly,
Apple Computer, Inc. is the other member of this program, having contributed a
G4 Server.  More information on the Co-Lab Program and the Bioinformatics.Org
Grid can be found in the Bioinformatics.Org Organization Plan:

  http://bioinformatics.org/about/plan-20020920.pdf

Bioinformatics.Org hopes to involve other organizations and individuals in this
project.  At the moment, all those involved and interested (including some
people known on these lists) are subscribed to the bio_grid mailing list:

  http://bioinformatics.org/lists/bio_grid

If you are interested in helping as an individual or as an organization (via the
Co-Lab Program), please contact me directly (jeff at bioinformatics.org).  Some of
our initial interests include setting up some dedicated nodes in other parts of
the world and installing other Grid Technology tools such as Grid Engine and
Globus.  People with helpful skills are especially encouraged to participate.

Expect to see some formal press releases elsewhere and some additional
information soon.

Cheers.
Jeff
-- 
J.W. Bizzaro                                jeff at bioinformatics.org
Director, Bioinformatics.Org        http://bioinformatics.org/~jeff
"As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we
should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention
of ours; and this we should do freely and generously."
                   -- Benjamin Franklin
--