November 27, 2001 9:00 PM PST IBM computers picked for cancer
research The grid will be used to detect breast cancer in
patients, store mammograms in digital form and identify
populations that are particularly susceptible, the company said
in a statement. The system can be used, for example, to compare
a new mammogram to a previous year's image to detect changes.
IBM, along with rivals such as Sun Microsystems and Compaq
Computer, have been backing grid computing, which joins
computers and storage systems into a large pool of computing
power. Initial buyers are researchers in academia and
pharmaceutical companies, but IBM believes more mainstream
companies also will be interested. The grid, funded by the
National Library of Medicine, connects hospitals at the
University of Pennsylvania, University of Chicago, University of
North Carolina, and the Sunnybrook and Women's College Hospital
in Toronto, IBM said. The grid later will be extended to
accommodate other institutions. The system includes two Intel
server