IBM donated pSeries 630 Unix clusters and some xSeries 345 Linux clusters to the cause, as well as its Shark disk arrays and DB2 relational database for Unix and Linux. United Devices, the grid middleware software maker behind Gateway’s attempt to harness the computing capacity in its ill-fated retail stores and rent it out of profit, has joined IBM as the software partner on the project.
The two companies worked on a similar grid a few years ago that lashed together computing cycles on desktops from over two million volunteers to help researchers look for a cure for smallpox.
IBM said that with the proved track record of projects like SETI@Home and some 650 million PCs in the world using very little of their peak capacity, the World Community Grid could go a long way to help cure Alzheimer’s disease or AIDS, or predict shifts in the global weather patterns that affect the lives of millions of people. The World Community Grid expects to host several projects every year.
The Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, working in conjunction with IBM, United Devices, and the University of Washington, will be the first organization to make use of the grid. Specifically, the grid will host the Human Proteome Folding Project, which will seek to understand the protein folding patterns of the 30,000 proteins that the human genome controls the production of.
