Oracle XE and another's experience

I was reading an experience of a Oracle user who tested Oracle XE, the newest release by Oracle. Oracle XE is the free express version of the big red database, 10G. The database is limited to 4GB and it does not support services like partitioning and other high end stuff. Yet this will be a boon for small companies and web applications (everyone has one now).
I hope it could be used in a grid environment and for testing grids and Oracle. I have not tried but would like to. I need to try and run it on a Linux box since all my work is being done on Linux.

Grid Resources for Industrial Applications 1.1.0 is out

GRIA is Grid middleware which enables commercial use of the Grid in a secure, interoperable and flexible manner.

GRIA enables:

* industrial users to trade computational resources on a commercial basis to meet their needs more cost-effectively;
* service providers to rent out spare CPU cycles, thus attaining better utilization; and
* clients to hire those CPU cycles, thus providing them with access to HPC when they need it.

GRIA makes use of business models, processes and semantics to allow resource owners and users to discover each other and negotiate terms for access to high-value resources.

GRIA implements an overall business process to find, procure and utilise resources capable of carrying out high-value, expert-assisted computations.

By focusing on business processes and the associated semantics, GRIA enables users to provision for their computational needs more cost effectively, and develop new business models for some of their services.

Services from different providers can be combined together to create applications using a simple and easy-to-use API.

Globus Toolkit development receives 13.3 Million from National Science Foundation

NSF has made an award to fund globus toolkit, major source for open source grid technology and development, over 5 years with 13.3 Million. The award is to sustain and enhance the Globus Toolkit.
Globus founders Ian Foster of the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory and Carl Kesselman of the University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute (USC/ISI) will lead the project.
"A growing skyscraper of front-line research is now based on Globus," Foster said. "This grant will secure the foundations of that skyscraper. Researchers and educators can now build on this software with confidence, knowing that a dedicated team is available to address problems and to enhance its capabilities as their needs evolve."
The award, entitled "Community Driven Improvement of Globus Software," will support scientists and engineers at UC and USC/ISI. Staff at those two organizations, along with other Globus developers around the world, will work with the scientific community to define and prioritize Globus enhancements. "What's exciting about this award is that it permits both ourselves and our partners to make long-term plans," Kesselman said. "Many projects that use Globus software have five or even 10-year planning horizons. We can now engage with them in defining and developing the software technology needed to support 21st Century science and engineering."
Development of Globus software was first supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Department of Energy (DOE), and later also NSF, IBM, and Microsoft. DOE and (in Europe) the United Kingdom's Engineering and Sciences Research Council and Swedish Research Council continue to provide important support for Globus-related research and development.

In addition, the open source nature of the software allow a large international community of developers and users, in both research and industry, to contribute to its development.

Google grid puts RSS on your email (GMAIL)

With all the servers at Google farms, their engineers have been busy. I went today to fetch my email from Gmail today and saw a new header "New! RSS feeds and more". After checking out a little more I found this article on google blog.. I think it is good news for gmail users. Have a read while I work on my grid technology.

SUN's New Server and offerings + Multicore Processors.

Sun Fire T1000/T2000 servers Toppling a series of world-record
benchmarks to claim its leading position for price/performance, Sun
announced today the release of the Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 servers
featuring patented CoolThreads technology. A major advancement that
leverages the Solaris(TM) 10 Operating System (OS), the new server line
is based on the recently announced, massively-threaded UltraSPARC T1
processor and offers industry leading, world record price/performance
for web, database and application processing. The new system is
designed to save customers millions in power, cooling and space costs.
The new Sun Fire T2000 server is available immediately, and the Sun
Fire T1000 can be ordered now for delivery in March 2006. Both servers
include a host of new integrated offers designed to stimulate rapid
adoption.
SPECweb2005
Sun Fire T2000 (8 cores, 1 chip) 13854 SPECweb2005.
IBM x346 (2 cores, 2 chips) 4348 SPECweb2005.
SPEC, SPECweb reg tm of Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation.
OpenSPARC(TM) Project Sun announced its intent to open source its
UltraSPARC processor technology and publish certain specifications for
the UltraSPARC-based chip including the source of the design expressed
in Verilog, a verification suite and simulation models, instruction set
architecture specification (UltraSPARC Architecture 2005) and a Solaris
OS port.
Space, Wattage and Performance (SWaP) Metric Sun is also announcing an important new metric for customers to use as they evaluate their datacenter efficiencies and systems performance. It is the big picture for datacenter managers -- it measures Space, Wattage and Performance SWaP). The new SWaP metric is the only true measure of industry-standard server efficiency: performance / (space x power).
Try It Before You Buy It -- Given the high level of interest in these
new breakthrough systems, Sun is now offering the industry's largest
"Try and Buy" program that enables customers and ISV partners to test
out a new Sun Fire T1000 or T2000 server running the highly threaded
UltraSPARC T1 processor free of charge for 90 days, with the option to
purchase the system at the end.
Full Protection Plans Sun also announced two new Full Protection
Plans, integrated system and services programs that offer customers low
total cost of ownership, reduced budgetary risk and increased system
availability. When customers choose the Sun Fire T1000 or T2000 system,
they get more than just a server; they receive the world's most
powerful operating system, Solaris 10, and the option to purchase a
Full Protection Plan that goes far beyond basic break/fix warranty
programs. Sun's Full Protection Plans are simple to purchase, include
the essential, recommended services and offer transparent three-year
pricing that enables customers to predict and better manage their IT
budgets.
CoolThreads Prize For Innovation Sun launched its CoolThreads
competition to inspire new software development for its breakthrough
Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 server line. In this competition, developers
and ISVs have the opportunity to win $50,000 in cash by developing
ground-breaking applications or improving on existing applications,
within the next six months, for optimal throughput performance and
scaling. For further details about the CoolThreads Developer Contest
and full contest rules, please visit this site.
Sun N1(TM) System Management software -- Sun N1 System Manager v1.2 now includes support for the Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 servers. This integrated solution allows customers to perform operating system provisioning and system management of the Sun Fire servers announced today and Sun's x64 industry-standard systems announced in September. Sun Management Console 3.6 adds support for several Solaris 10 features including Dynamic Tracing, Predictive Self-Healing and Solaris containers. The Sun N1 Management portfolio includes Sun N1 System Manager, Sun Management Center, N1 Service Provisioning System and the Sun N1 Grid Engine. These products help enterprises lower operational costs and improve business efficiency by simplifying the management of systems and services in customers' heterogeneous datacenters.

SUN Breakthrough Coolthreads to a new era.

PRNEWSWIRE
Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq:SUNW) today made several game
changing announcements, including the early arrival of its revolutionary new 9.6 GHz-based, high-performance systems, led by the Sun Fire(TM) T1000 and T2000 servers with CoolThreads(TM) technology. Continuing its commitment to the developer community and to addressing the growing needs of the next-generation Internet, Sun also announced its intent to open source the company's massively-threaded processor technology to further lower the barriers to innovation and application development. As part of this global product roll-out, taking place over the next two weeks in more than 25 countries, Sun will showcase unprecedented support for its new server line
and UltraSPARC(R) T1(TM) microprocessor from a wide range of global technology leaders including Oracle, Symantec and BEA.
"Sun's innovations are once again at the forefront of driving the industry
and the economic reality of building out the next generation Internet," said
Scott McNealy, chairman and CEO, Sun Microsystems, Inc. "This is a quarter
filled with global firsts -- the world's first 9.6 GHz industry-standard
server, the first truly open source microprocessor, the world's first open
source operating system and web services stack, and the world's most complete
lineup of sustainable innovations for the growing network infrastructure
market. 'The Network is the Computer' has never been more true than today and Sun has never been more competitive."
Sun's new systems are more than three times faster than IBM Xeon systems at nearly half the power and cooling costs and with 4.2 times better performance per watt(1). CoolThreads servers also have nearly seven times greater performance than Dell Xeon systems(2) and have 76 percent more performance at 2.3 times lower power consumption than an IBM 4-way Power 5+ system, while costing nearly half as much(3). This new server announcement, along with previous x64 and UltraSPARC IV+ server announcements, make Sun's server line-up the most compelling offering for customers looking to turbocharge their datacenter for the next wave of the Internet.
For more information related to all of Sun's NC05Q4 announcements, go to Sun's online press kit at here.

Big gadget for Little people!

I think this is one way you can introduce, that young person you know to Linux and independence in computing. Products like this will remove the label that Linux has acquired as only a product for Geeks. Who knows, may be these little people will start building little big grids in the classroom. The Grid technology belongs, not only to large corporations, everybody!
Thank you Edubuntu!
Geemodo: One of the Best of gadgets you can give that young person you know!

New (old) Player in Utility Computing and it is HP!

HP is broadening its six-year-old utility computing initiative by making it publicly available for the first time, primarily to enterprise customers. Upto now only a handful of blue chip clients such as DreamWorks and Schlumberger, had access to the service.
The Flexible Computing services, offered by the HP LABS, are offered at different levels. Even one is able to try before buying. Or like your golf club membership, one could get an annual membership which allows reserved access to the services offered by HP utility computing as needed. In addition to the membership fee, customers are required to pay for computing as they use them.
Although HP started utility computing as early as 1999, now it has two major rivals, SUN and IBM. SUN has almost laughed at the way the service is offered by comparing servise to electricity and voltage.
SUN offers service at a price of $1 per hour per CPU. But only on Solaris Platform. Hp on the other hand offers various CPUs on various OSs like Linux, windows and HP's own HP-UX. The pricing is based on CPU and X86 costs 55cents an hour, AMD Opterons are about $1 while Itanium run at about $1.50 an hour.
HP said its choices are designed to tailor customer solutions. "What we bring to the party is simplicity," said Gene Becker, director of utility services at HP Labs. "We're IT geeks. We provide a centrally managed IT facility so customers don't have to.
If yo saw Shrek 2 or Madagascar from Dreamworks, you already have seen HP utility computing's results. They utilized the 1000 CPU, HP ProLiant DL360 server farm to make those movies. Learn more about the service here.