Projects

Believed to be the first of its kind in the UK, the White Rose Grid was launched in the summer of 2002 and provides a high-performance computing service for researchers in the Consortium universities and for industry.

Grid computing’s premise is to maximise computer resources by joining them up in a network. In the same way that the Web connects vast quantities of information, grid technology uses innovative hardware and software tools to link computing power into a single virtual source of processing capability that can be distributed across any geographic distance. Put simply, grid computing lets you tap into massive computational power through the Internet as easily as electricity is drawn from the national grid.

Developed at a cost of £2.8 million, with £400,000 backing from the regional development agency, Yorkshire Forward, the Grid provides massive computational power well beyond the capability of a single White Rose university. It offers a novel, cost-effective computing environment to enable more effective sharing resources, knowledge and experiences in order to develop a wide portfolio of internationally important new projects.

The Grid has already been recognised as a source of computational excellence and acknowledged for its contribution to the development of business and commerce within the UK by being named as a Centre for Excellence for e-Science in the UK.

Website: www.wrgrid.org.uk