Those of you who have tracked nanotechnology for a long time know that Sun Microsystems was one of the first corporations to take an interest in the field, e.g., sponsoring the Foresight Conferences over the years, and more recently helping to fund the Technology Roadmap for Productive Nanosystems. Now that foresight, combined with their compatibility with open source, is paying off for the firm. Excerpts from their press release:
Sun Microsystems Powers World-Leading London Centre of Nanotechnology
…Sun has delivered innovative 3D visualization hardware and software solutions as part of an overall 30 million pound investment in world class bio- and non-bio facilities and over 200 multi-disciplinary staff. The Sun Visualization System combines the best aspects of high performance 3D graphics technology with new ultra high-speed networking and system architectures. In practice, these systems are used to predictively model the precise manipulation and control of atoms and molecules, which is central to the science of nanotechnology. Nanotechnology can deliver a wide variety of benefits to society, ranging from the design of minute doses of
breakthrough drugs, real-time clinical diagnostics to the exotic, such as self assembling bio-structures…The Sun Scalable Visualization Software deployed at LCN represents the first time Sun N1TM software has been used, in conjunction with Chromium Open Source Software, to manage the vast quantities of data and compute power required to deliver interactive and graphically intensive results.
Great to see the company playing a key role in nanotech R&D, which should help fuel their ongoing turnaround. —Christine
