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Intel to construct giant computing grid for China

Staff, CNET News.com CNET News.com

Published: 25 Sep 2003 10:40 BST

By 2006, 100 of China's universities will be linked by a network that will combine their computing power to create a shared supercomputer.

Chip giant Intel yesterday announced it would team with China's Ministry of Education to build a national computing "grid" -- a network of computers harnessed to work together.

When completed, the MOE expects the grid to have a performance of more than 15 teraflops, making it one of the world's most powerful high-performance computing grids, according to a statement from Intel.

Intel will work with server vendors from this year onwards to provide the schools with computers equipped with the chipmaker's Itanium 2 processors.

The grid will be used for work in life sciences, the petroleum industry, earthquake research and commercial financial projects.

It will also be used to help power the 'Digital Olympics' initiative, to support the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

The universities linked to the grid will be connected by the high-speed Internet-based China Education and Research Network (Cernet).

The project follows announcements from Intel about joint supercomputer projects in China. Rival chipmaker AMD is also working with institutions in the country to develop powerful computers.