CENTER FOR COMPUTATION & TECHNOLOGY

The Advocate By Ned Randolph Experts from Cisco Systems, Intel Corp., IBM and AT&T will be in Baton Rouge today and Friday exploring ways for the state to participate in the new National LambdaRail, an exclusive high-speed network of supercomputers around the country. Baton Rouge was designated as the Southeast region's access point between Houston and Jacksonville, Fla., in June. The Board of Regents now hopes to build a $25 million fiber-optics network linking super computer clusters among seven Louisiana universities that would join the LambdaRail node in Baton Rouge. This week's Louisiana Optical Network Initiative Forum, at Pennington Biomedical Center, will cover different projects proposed using the network and new sources of grants previously unavailable. "LONI and the NLR will attract new dollars to the state and more smart people," said Dan Henderson, director of information technology at the state Department of Economic Development. "It's an engine that will drive the state in every respect." Researchers for years have used LSU's supercomputer, called Super Mike, to model coastal erosion effects, for disaster management during hurricane season and to discover new findings in the petrochemical industry. With a processor upgrade to Super Mike under way, and access to the LamdaRail, state researchers will have unprecedented access to a virtual grid of the country's supercomputers -- allowing them immediate results to complex computing models. AT&T, which donated 8,000 miles of fiber-optic strands to link Houston to Baton Rouge and on to Jacksonville, will activate LambdaRail's southern loop Friday, spokesman Eugene Regan said. State officials hope to start building the state network in September and have the system operational, with super computer clusters at Louisiana Tech, Southern University, LSU Health Sciences Center, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, University of New Orleans and Tulane online by April 15, said Charlie McMahon, director of LSU Telecommunications. The LONI Forum is hosted by the Office of the Governor, the Board of Regents and LSU's Center for Computation & Technology.