Blackstone to Build Large-Scale Compute Farm for Biogen.Business/Technology Editors and Medical Writers WORCESTER, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 1, 2000 Compute farm leader to help speed genomics-based drug discovery with fast, application-specific, and scalable IT architecture Amid a strategic expansion of its offerings in the biotechnology market, Blackstone Technology Group, the leading compute farm services and technology provider, today announced that it will build a large-scale, distributed computing (1) The use of multiple computers networked throughout a wide geographical area, or the world via the Internet, in order to solve a single problem. See grid computing. (2) The use of multiple computers in an enterprise rather than one centralized system. solution for Biogen, one of the world's premier biotechnology companies Top 100 Biotechnology Companies The following is a list of the top 100 biotechnology companies ranked by revenue. The first nine companies qualify for the list of the top 50 pharmaceutical companies. . The agreement calls for Blackstone to provide a high-performance compute farm running on the Linux operating system operating system (OS) Software that controls the operation of a computer, directs the input and output of data, keeps track of files, and controls the processing of computer programs. and featuring Intel-based processors, along with supporting technologies and services, to support Biogen's mission-critical drug discovery process. Blackstone will ensure that the Linux farm will be interoperable with Biogen's existing infrastructure, which is comprised of Sun(TM) hardware running Solaris(TM) and SGI (SGI, Sunnyvale, CA, www.sgi.com) A manufacturer of workstations and servers, founded in 1982 by Jim Clark. The company was founded as Silicon Graphics, Inc., but changed to its acronym in 1999. (TM) hardware running IRIX A Unix-based operating system from SGI that is used in its computer systems from desktop to supercomputer. It is an enhanced version of Unix System V Release 4. IRIX integrates the X Window system with OpenGL, creating the first real time 3D X environment. (R). Compute farms are networks of servers that pool compute power into a virtual single resource, optimized for specific, long-running, CPU- and memory-intensive applications. Ron Ranauro, founder and chief executive officer of Blackstone, said, "We're very excited that Biogen selected us to work with them to build a fast and efficient computing platform See platform. to speed their drug discovery." He added that, "Although bioinformatics is still a new and growing field, Blackstone is proud to be present at the dawn of the industry, working with leaders like Biogen to develop new technologies and expertise to speed discovery and time-to-market." Components of Blackstone's agreement with Biogen include: Blackstone's SmartCache(TM) data management tool which enables faster and more efficient data flow across the compute farm; Blackstone's SmartBlast(TM) tool for distributing computationally-intensive genomic applications across compute farms; Blackstone's SmartWatch(TM) software, to monitor utilization rates and ensure peak efficiency of CPU CPU in full central processing unit Principal component of a digital computer, composed of a control unit, an instruction-decoding unit, and an arithmetic-logic unit. usage; and LSF LSF Lisofylline, see there load-balancing software (from Platform Computing Platform Computing is a privately held software company that is primarily known for its job scheduling product, Load Sharing Facility (LSF). It was founded in 1992 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its headquarter is in Markham, ON. ), which optimizes processing across CPUs in the compute farm. More on Compute Farms A compute farm is a pool of networked computers that are fused into a single source of massive compute power. Compute farms are created by applying enabling technology and application- and industry-specific knowledge to achieve Big Iron benefits at a fraction of the cost. They provide scalable and uninterrupted compute power for executing jobs that are long-running as well as CPU- and memory-intensive. Unlike server farms used in e-commerce and web-hosting applications, which process a huge number of relatively short transactions, compute farms efficiently execute a smaller number of large jobs that run for extended time periods. About Biogen Biogen, Inc., winner of the US National Medal of Technology, is a biopharmaceutical company principally engaged in discovering and developing drugs for human healthcare through genetic engineering. Headquartered in Cambridge, MA, the Company's revenues are generated from US and European sales of AVONEX(R) (Interferon beta-la) for treatment of relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis, and from the worldwide sales by licensees of a number of products, including alpha interferon and hepatitis B vaccines hepatitis B vaccine n. Abbr. HB A vaccine prepared from the inactivated surface antigen of the hepatitis B virus and used to immunize against hepatitis B. and diagnostic products. Biogen's research and development activities are focused on novel products for multiple sclerosis, inflammatory, respiratory, kidney and cardiovascular diseases Cardiovascular disease Disease that affects the heart and blood vessels. Mentioned in: Lipoproteins Test cardiovascular disease and in developmental biology Developmental biology A large field of investigation that includes the study of all changes associated with an organism as it progresses through the life cycle. The life cycles of all multicellular organisms exhibit many similarities. and gene therapy. For additional information about the Company, please consult Biogen's Homepage on the World Wide Web at http://www.biogen.com. About Blackstone Technology Group Blackstone Technology Group, Inc. is a pioneer in developing and implementing compute farm solutions that deliver secure, scaleable and uninterrupted compute power on demand. The company offers ComputeFarm Advantage, a comprehensive suite containing all the tools and services needed to access, provision, and scale compute power. Sun, Celera, Qualcomm and Lucent rely on Blackstone for compute farm solutions. Visit Blackstone online at www.ComputeFarm.com, or call 508.793.2162. SmartCache, SmartBlast, SmartWatch and ComputeFarm Advantage are trademarks of Blackstone Technology Group, Inc. AVONEX is a registered trademark of Biogen, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. |
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