Digital Equipment Corp claims that by linking groups of Alpha AXP Unix workstations together using its proprietary GigaSwitch technology – an intelligent, high-speed cross-bar switch (CI No 2,132) – the machines can not only outperform mainframes, but also provide supercomputing power: Parallel Virtual Machine and Heterogeneous Network Computing Environment software packages developed by the University of Tennessee, the US Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Emory University – are then added to enable the network of computers to act as a single processing unit; DEC reckons that workstation farms could be used as an alternative to downsizing because the ‘virtual system’ that is created can be an alternative to costly mainframe upgrades or the purchase of an expensive central processor; moreover, it declares, European research organisations, such as the University of Rome and German Institute of Plasmaphysics, are now using the farms to undertake projects that until now were beyond their financial and technical reach; suitable applications include computational chemistry, genetics, and aerospace simulations; DEC attests it has sold more than 1,000 Alpha boxes to European universities since they were launched last November.
