Researchers at the University of California, San Diego are planning a new campus centre dedicated to invent the next generation of virtual worlds, multiple player on-line games, and high fidelity digital cinema, using one of the world's most sophisticated computer servers - the IBM System z mainframe.

The Michigan Center for Translational Pathology (MCTP) at the University of Michigan installed a Genomatix Mining Station (GMS) and a Genomatix Genome Analyzer (GGA) at its labs in Ann Arbor, Michigan. GMS and GGA are a combination of purpose built high performance hardware and terabytes of proprietary database and software technology combined to provide a turnkey solution for the analysis of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) data. Together they represent a complete, integrated analysis solution for NGS data, starting with the raw data generated by the sequencer to a molecular level understanding of the biology being studied.

Neutral atoms - having no net electric charge - usually don't act very dramatically around a magnetic field. But by "dressing them up" with light, researchers at the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI), a collaborative venture of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Maryland at College Park, have caused ultracold rubidium atoms to undergo a startling transformation.

Tecnica UK Ltd, an engineering design consultancy specialising in crankshaft, connecting rods and axle beam forging designs for the automotive industry, is using a new Linux-based High Performance Compute system (HPC system) to reduce processing time of its complex 3D computer simulations - in use during the forge design process - by up to 80 percent (40 hours down to 8 hours). The design, implementation, configuration and support of the entire Linux HPC system is provided by the UK's premier HPC integrator, OCF plc.

Analyst firm, Gartner, has named IBM a leader in its February 2009 report, "Magic Quadrant for Data Center Outsourcing Services, Western Europe".

Research led by the University of Warwick has found a way to use doughnuts shaped by-products of quantum dots to slow and even freeze light, opening up a wide range of possibilities from reliable and effective light based computing to the possibility of "slow glass".

OGF25 in Catania started with a tutorial on Desktop Grid computing and the EDGeS project. This marked the entrance of Desktop Grid computing in the Open Grid Forum that has a main focus on service Grids, such as EGEE. At the tutorial session it was explained how Desktop Grids can make the vasts amounts of unused computing time of companies and people at home available for scientific applications. By donating computing time, people can help science. The EDGeS project is bridging between Desktop Grids and Grids like EGEE. This allows scientists who are used to work within an EGEE environment to tap into a much larger pool of resources. The tutorial continued with an explanation of the applications already running on the EDGeS infrastructure and information on how to port scientific applications to EDGeS and Desktop Grids.

Gridipedia, the European repository of all things Grid is hosting a booth at the 25th Open Grid Forum event in Catania, Sicily. On hand was the team responsible for the site to discuss how you can use Gridipedia for your business or research.

A new add-on for Windows, BOINCcalculator, shows details such as trickles, credit, timesteps and checkpoints, of running CPDN jobs. And Cosmology@Home, a project from the University of Illinois whose goal is to search for the model that best describes our Universe, is now listed on BOINC's Choose Projects page.

Platform Computing continues to see strong revenue growth in its financial services (FS) industry business as organisations move aggressively to reduce costs through the adoption of Grid and Cloud technology.