A $60 million deal for Cornell's high-performance computer program. (Technology Update).

Thanks to an agreement with Dell, Intel and Microsoft, Cornell University's Cornell Theory Center (CTC) will receive $60 million in resources to provide a suite of Windows-based, high-performance computing solutions and services to business, government and academic clients. At CTC, "clusters" of computers operate in parallel to achieve supercomputer speeds. The new grant will more than double the existing complex of 900 processors at CTC and will greatly expand the center's research, education and outreach efforts.

A new Theory Center unit, CTC High-Performance Solutions, will work with businesses and other users, offering consulting services and training on how to rewrite software to take advantage of parallel computing. Other services will include executive and technical briefings and support of a TechExchange consortium.

Thomas F. Coleman, CTC director and Cornell computer scientist says, "With our expanded alliance and combined strengths, we can show companies, government agencies and academic institutions how to expand their computing environment, while reducing their overall information technology budget."