Fujitsu Ltd is shipping its first VP2200 supercomputer to go to Australia under a new partnership agreement between Fujitsu Australia and the Australian Nuclear Science & Technology Organization, which will establish a company called Australian Super Computing Technology Pty Ltd to offer a supercomputing bureau service along with the ability to convert Fujitsu Unix supercomputer applications to the VP2200 for worldwide consumption; the bureau will first target academic and later commercial customers, and the Australian nuclear body will take 60% of the joint venture while Fujitsu will guarantee the equivalent of $1.5m of the $3.8m research and development required over the first five years; for Fujitsu Australia, the joint venture represents a major step in developing its value-added services business, which is a major revenue spinner at the moment given the downturn in the Australian economy services such as worldwide technical support are already offered by Fujitsu Australia to other Fujitsu units in South-East Asia and Europe.
