– By Grant Gross –

Linux will be an important piece of a grid computing system for diagnosing breast cancer that IBM is building at a string of universities across the United States and Canada.

IBM and the University of Pennsylvania announced today they are starting to build a computing grid — initially linking hospitals at four universities, and potentially involving thousands of hospitals — that will pool the university computing resources to speed the diagnosis and screening of breast cancer.

IBM is calling the grid a “three-tiered system” that will run Linux, Windows, and IBM’s Unix OS AIX on different parts of the system, but Linux will be used to power gateways from the universities to the super-fast, research-focused Internet 2, says Dan Powers, IBM’s v.p. of Linux Solutions. IBM’s eServer 1300 Linux cluster will also be used at the grid’s regional hubs for a high-speed platform to process data and run applications on the grid.

“The universities do like open standards; they have a tremendous amount of familiarity with Linux,” Powers says, explaining the advantage of Linux. “The students … haven’t been using Linux for four years, they’ve been using it for eight years — they were using it for four years before they got to college. Those students are coming to corporations, and by the way, those students are becoming the researchers at these major universities.”

Powers also says Linux’s speed and stability are also important for the university hospitals engaged in important research. A crashed computer can cause lost time and data.

Powers calls grid computing “the next evolution of computing, the next big wave.” In the last couple of years, grid computing, in which many computers share processing power and disk space over a far-flung network as in the SETI@home project, has become more popular in part because of the Open Source Globus Project. Powers credits the Globus Project with popularizing grid computing at universities and other research facilities, and he predicts corporations will soon begin to recognize how grids of computers can increase their computing power and save money. He predicts companies will take existing computing resources and tie them into grids.

“In the future, companies will have a grid on their intranet, and they’ll have a grid that’s on their extranet, and a grid on their Internet, maybe,” Powers says. “They’ll run all of their key business applications on that grid.”

In addition to harnessing the grid for fast data crunching, IBM and the participating universities expect their computing grid to save money, too, by allowing cancer doctors to share mammograms or X-rays digitally, instead of shipping them or taking new mammograms.

The grids will also help tie together data that could identify populations of women affected by breast cancer around the world, Powers says. After the initial four universities, three in the United States and one in Canada, the grid could eventually link computers are thousands of cancer treatment centers together, Powers adds.

The first step for IBM and partner Oak Ridge National Laboratory is working on getting the grid running at the University of Pennsylvania. “It’s not one of those things that you can ever say is done,” Powers says. “But the work is starting now.”

IBM and the University of Pennsylvania
today announced a powerful computing Grid that aims to bring advanced
methods of breast cancer diagnosis and screening to patients across the
nation, while reducing costs.

Built with open standards, the University of Pennsylvania Grid is a massive
distributed computer that delivers computing resources as a utility-like
service over the Internet. Enabling up to thousands of hospitals to store
mammograms in digital form, the Grid will provide analytical tools that
help physicians diagnose individual cases and identify cancer “clusters” in
the population. It will also give authorized medical personnel
near-instantaneous access to patient records and reduce the need for
expensive film X-rays.

“Once a patient’s mammograms are loaded into the system, they can be
evaluated with powerful tools that isolate abnormalities very quickly by
comparing current X-rays with those from previous years,” said Dr. Robert
Hollebeek, director of the university’s National Scalable Cluster Lab.
“Traditional film X-rays of individual patients are often scattered among
various medical facilities, making them hard to find when needed. This Grid
will help ensure that all of a patient’s vital data is provided to
authorized physicians very quickly, efficiently and securely.”

Hospitals are connected to the Grid via secure Internet portals that allow
authorized physicians to upload, download and analyze digitized X-ray data.
Advantages of the Grid include:

• Fast data retrieval — authorized physicians have immediate access to
  a patient’s complete history of mammograms, no matter where or when the
  X-rays were taken.

• Computer-assisted diagnosis — X-ray data can be scanned with powerful
  software that identifies potential tumors and other problems, helping
  physicians diagnose patient illnesses.

• Pattern identification — Sophisticated algorithms can uncover
  patterns that appear in the population, such as cancer “clusters,” or
  abnormal concentrations of the disease in a particular community.

• Cost savings — Each year, the average hospital spends $4 million to
  develop X-ray films. Estimates indicate that participation in the Grid will
  result in an average yearly cost savings in the millions of dollars.

• Training — A suite of educational tools will be deployed on the Grid
  to help doctors, medical students and interns learn more about breast
  cancer and related diseases.

Now in its early stages of deployment, the University of Pennsylvania Grid,
in collaboration with a group from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ACT at
BWXT), connects hospitals at the University of Pennsylvania, University of
Chicago, University of North Carolina, and the Sunnybrook and Women’s
College Hospital in Toronto. It is funded by the National Library of
Medicine.

In the future, the University of Pennsylvania will work to extend the Grid
to additional medical institutions. The design of the system is capable of
serving thousands of hospitals.

The Power of IBM eServer

The University of Pennsylvania Grid is built with a three-tier architecture
that leverages the strengths of IBM eServer and open protocols from Globus.
At the user level, each participating hospital is equipped with a portal
consisting of two IBM eServer xSeries systems. One xSeries machine serves
as a temporary repository for the digital data, and the other is a link to
the next generation of the Internet, called Internet2.

Once the data is loaded into the portal, it is transmitted to a
metropolitan hub — an IBM eServer Cluster 1600 UNIX system. When the Grid
is fully deployed, data from several metropolitan hubs will be funneled to
a high-capacity regional hub, which is now being prototyped with an IBM
eServer 1300 Linux system.

The three-tiered system — running AIX, Linux and Windows — illustrates
the inherent heterogeneity of computing Grids.

Teams from the University of Pennsylvania and IBM are partnering to develop
an ultra-high capacity DB2 database to serve as the secure repository for
the digitized X-ray data.

IBM’s Grid Leadership

The University of Pennsylvania Grid is the latest in a series of Grid
projects that illustrates IBM’s leadership in this space.

Earlier this month, IBM was selected to build the North Carolina
Bioinformatics Grid, which will be developed in collaboration
GlaxoSmithKline Inc., Biogen, the University of North Carolina System, Duke
University and other organizations.

In August, IBM was selected by a consortium of four U.S. research centers
to build the world’s most powerful computing Grid, an interconnected series
of Linux clusters capable of processing 13.6 trillion calculations per
second. The Grid system — known as the Distributed Terascale Facility
(DTF) — will enable thousands of scientists around the country to share
computing resources over the world’s fastest research network in search of
breakthroughs in life sciences, climate modeling and other critical
disciplines.

IBM is also partnering with several centers in the UK National Grid to
provide key technologies and infrastructure for the project, which is
linking a massive network of computers throughout the United Kingdom.

In addition, IBM is building a powerful computing Grid for universities in
the Netherlands.

Open Standards

Just as electricity is delivered to homes over an electrical grid,
Computing Grids allow geographically distributed organizations to share
applications, data and computing resources. A new model of computing,
Grids are clusters of servers joined together over the Internet, using
protocols provided by the Globus open source community (Globus.org) and
other open technologies, including Linux (R).

Anonymous Reader writes, “DesktopLinux.com has today launched a new “frequently asked questions” list targeting computer users who want to switch from Windows to Linux as their desktop operating system. The “Win2LinFAQ” will cover commonly asked questions about Linux and related applications installation and configuration, application selection, data migration issues, etc. Members of the Linux community are being asked to contribute appropriate questions — and answers — to the project. Here is the announcement of the Win2LinFAQ project from Rick Lehrbaum, Executive Editor of DesktopLinux.com”

Slashdot.org has links to the preliminary election results. Top vote-getters: Havoc Pennington and Miguel de Icaza. Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation wasn’t elected.

ZDNet UK reports on an email sent by Linux creator Linus Torvalds about the development pace of Linux. “Linus Torvalds, initiator of the Linux kernel that drives the GNU/Linux operating system, admitted
in an email this week that Linux isn’t yet fully mature, which can make kernel development
difficult. He was commenting on the recent release of the 2.5.0 kernel, which on Monday had to
be replaced because of a file-system bug.”

IDG News Service reports that IBM has been fined $120,000 by the city of San Francisco for its spray-painted Linux sidewalk ad campaign. Another story from ZDNet.

Linux NetworX, a Utah-based provider of powerful and easy-to-manage cluster supercomputing solutions, announced today it has been selected as one of Computerworld magazine’s Top 100 Emerging Companies for 2002.

To choose the Top 100 Emerging Companies, a panel of editors from Computerworld magazine, an information services company for the IT leader community, and a group of information technology industry experts selected companies whose products present creative solutions to IT issues, compete in new or emerging markets and demonstrate value in corporate IT operations.

“In selecting the Computerworld Top 100 Emerging Companies for 2002, the editors and panel members emphasized innovation,” said Maryfran Johnson, editor in chief of Computerworld. “These companies are creating products or services that present a new and creative approach to an IT issue, while demonstrating that they have the foundation, vision, and strategy to succeed in the years ahead.”

Linux NetworX was selected because of its computer cluster solutions and cluster management products – Evolocity, ClusterWorX® and ICE Box. These products have received other awards for their technical merit, including most recently the “Open Source Product Exellence Award” at the 2001 LinuxWorld Expo trade show.

Linux clustering provides an alternative to traditional supercomputing by using a method of linking multiple computers together to form a unified and very powerful computing system. By taking advantage of standard computer components, Linux NetworX clusters can match the performance of supercomputers for a fraction of the cost.

About Computerworld

Based in Framingham, Mass., Computerworld, Inc. is a complete information services company for the IT Leader community, providing print and online publications, books, conferences and research services. The company’s flagship weekly newspaper for IT Leaders has been recognized numerous times by Folio: Magazine and the Computer Press Association as the best computer newspaper. With a circulation of 250,000, Computerworld has a total audience of 1,694,000, according to IntelliQuest CIMS v.8.0. News and resources for the IT Leader community are available at www.computerworld.com.

About Linux NetworX

Linux NetworX (www.linuxnetworx.com) brings its powerful and easy-to-manage cluster technology to those demanding high performance and high availability systems. Linux NetworX provides solutions for organizations involved in oil and gas exploration, aeronautical and chemical modeling, biotechnology research, graphics rendering and visual effects, Web serving, ISPs, ASPs, and other technological research fields. Through its innovative Evolocity hardware, ICE? cluster management tools and professional service and support, Linux NetworX provides industry-leading clustering solutions. To date, the company has built some of the largest cluster systems in the world, and boasts numerous Fortune 500 customers.

Contact

Brad Rutledge

Linux NetworX

801-562-1010 ext. 218
brutledge@linuxnetworx.com

Anonymous Reader writes, “Here is something pretty neat, a Linux-powered portable called Bokks for those who trade movie as well as music files on the Net. Connecting directly to your broadband service via Ethernet, the Bokks hooks up to your TV set where you can view the movie files you download beyond the confines of your computer screen. The player sells for $399 and includes a 20GB hard drive. The article includes pictures of the portable as well as screenshots.”

http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/2001/bokks.html

James Curtin writes, “NeTraverse and MandrakeSoft have teamed up to package Win4Lin and NeTraverse Server into the Mandrake distribution. This offers a compelling alternative to XP software and hardware upgrades.

http://www.netraverse.com/company/press/press163.p hp“

– by Jack Bryar –

Despite a commercial Linux landscape that is as devastated as any IT
market in recent memory, there’s at least one Japanese electronics firm that
needs Linux to succeed — badly. The trouble is, Sony’s president may not be
aware just how badly he needs to hitch his company’s fortune to an operating
system that has had such a rough ride in the commercial marketplace.

When Kunitake
Ando, Sony’s chief operating officer, spoke at Comdex, he may have looked around and concluded that Open Source was dead. While the trade show still featured close to 40 exhibitors with a Linux related product, it was a fraction of previous years. However, based on the feedback from the show, the most endangered company at Comdex wasn’t any of the Linux developers — it was Sony.

Microsoft is coming right at the company.

While Sony may believe
that its future depends on its success in broadband networking,
its present is still tied to PlayStation. Sony is hugely
dependent on games for its profits. Microsoft wants to take that
business away, and then take away the rest of the consumer electronics
marketplace. Microsoft’s XBox is the beginning of a campaign to do just that.
According to everyone I spoke to, Comdex
was a coming out party for the XBox. It was one of the few things
that excited anyone at a show generally conceded to be one of the most
boring in years. Microsoft’s target market isn’t the kiddies who dominate
Nintendo’s marketplace. Instead, the first offerings for the XBox are
targeted right at Sony’s older gamers. This is a market Sony can’t afford to
lose.

As troubling as the Xbox may be to Sony, Redmond is about to
come at the rest of Sony’s consumer electronics base during the next 18
months. This week, Microsoft unveiled its new eHome division. This
division has been incubating for better than a year, but many of the
prototypes were first tested in Bill Gates’ home more than two years ago. The
division is targeting several core Sony markets: music players, electronic photography systems and enhanced television
services. eHome v.p. Mike Toutonghi has been recruiting senior execs from across
the company in a campaign reminiscent of early efforts to
build out Microsoft’s Office suite. The management team is a who’s who of
executives from the company’s .NET and XP projects. eHome has located a needy
hardware developer to help fabricate and launch this new generation of products.
Cash-strapped Samsung has been selected to help the company
manufacture these products.

Not surprisingly, the company has already leaked that many of the
features of these new products will be hooked into future generations of
Windows. The first few steps in this direction are embedded in XP. As most
reviewers have noticed, those few features in XP of any value are focused
around supporting consumer applications such as audio and communications. This
is not an accident, rather, it is where the development efforts have been
concentrated. The prize is not the PC marketplace, but all the other consumer
electronics devices in the home. It could work.

So will Sony fight back? If it chooses to do so, one thing is
certain. The company will have to find a way to deny Microsoft its operating system monopoly . And that means partnering with Linux developers, and popularizing the
platform as an alternative.

The company has already made some steps in that direction. It will
need to take more. Here are a couple of suggestions.

Step one: Hit Microsoft where it lives.

Why leave Microsoft with a protected monopoly? Admittedly, today
Sony has
nothing to offer Linux enthusiasts, but there’s finally a market
here. Go after it. XP’s Passport and product activation feature has alienated some of the
most ardent Windows enthusiasts. Small companies in pressured markets are ready to resist Microsoft’s vision of forced upgrades and reduced consumer control of desktops. The biggest market for Linux systems may be outside of North America — Linux desktops are becoming far more common in Asia and Third World countries. It’s hardly
dominant, but in many countries Linux has a PC market share that’s a
lot larger than Sony’s.

Besides, what’s the downside? For years PC makers have signed on
with Microsoft because Redmond virtually guaranteed them growth rates
exceeding 10% a year. Not anymore. XP’s sales have stalled and it is taking the
broader PC market down with it.

Step two: Go after markets you should dominate.
Take the market for handheld devices, for example. This is the type
of business Sony used to own. Linux has already secured a small
but growing place in the handheld device market. Today, Sharp and
several other vendors are finding a welcome market for Linux PDAs. While
proportionately, the strongest Linux markets are outside the United States, even in the states machines like VTech’s little Helio handheld
are selling out to the bare walls. There’s a market here. Go after it.

Step three: Get some allies.

Sony can’t fight back on its own, but there are plenty of potential
allies out there who need a little leadership. AOL would probably be
happy to help, but it has no hardware expertise. Sun and IBM would love to
help, but they have almost no consumer presence. NTT, Cisco, AT&T and a
host of Japanese and Korean product manufacturers have little love for
Redmond, and have little to lose by trying to give Microsoft a run for its
money.

But the most important thing for Sony to do is to act … soon.