Projects / Organisations Using Alchemi

Tier Technologies, USA

Abstract: In this paper we analyze the concept of grid programming as it applies to document imaging and processing. The paper mostly focuses on OCR processing mapped to a simple grid configuration. Alchemi .NET grid framework was used as the grid engine. Basic dependences of the OCR engine behavior in the grid configuration are discussed and the increase of the document processing rate is demonstrated. Based solely on the small sample and test regimen employed, we demonstrate that throughput in excess of 150% can be achieved even in this CPU intensive process by employing grid strategies.
More Information: Document processing using Alchemi Framework

CSIRO, Australia

Researchers at CSIRO Land and Water are using Microsoft .NET to develop and utilise an application framework for the creation of environmental simulation models, named TIME. An extension to this framework, DIME, makes use of Alchemi to allow for the parallel execution of models across a network.

More Information:
(1)TIME and DIME - Supporting Natural Resource Modelling with .NET and Alchemi
(2)Newsletter of the CRC for Catchment Hydrology (June 2004, page 3,4)

stochastix GmbH, Germany

ManagedXLL is a RAD environment for Excel that integrates (possibly real-time) data and numerical calculations, designed for finance, derivatives trading and engineering. ManagedXLL provides a seamless integration with the .NET managed run-time and worksheet functions can be exported to Excel 97-2003 in a non-intrusive way.
The Asynchronous Excel Task implemented by ManagedXLL 2 is an abstraction of the asynchronous worksheet function and is designed to implement more complex scnenarios like the grid computing frameworks such as Alchemi to support functions that show poor performance when called in the standard synchronous order.
More Information: http://www.stochastix.de/solutions/excel/managedxll/latest/manual/s.grid.html

The Friedrich Miescher Institute (FMI) for Biomedical Research, Switzerland

FMI has developed a program for looking for patterns of transcription factors in the regulatory regions of mammalian genes. Previously this program took hours to complete its searches but by farming out the tasks in parallel on an Alchemi grid of 10 PCs we can now complete the analysis in only a few seconds.
-- Edward Oakeley, Head of Functional Genomics, FMI, Switzerland.
More Information: http://promoterplot.fmi.ch
In addition, have a look at their research article.

Correlation Systems Ltd. , Israel

Correlation System has developed FoxFix2 - an Alchemi-based tool for estimating the location of an HF radio transmitter using SSL technology. Fox-Fix performs fast and accurate calculations of HF radio wave propagation models based on ionosphere behavior predictive models, without performing ionosphere height measurements which require expensive ionosounder systems.
For more information please contact: Erel Rosenberg

Satyam Computers, Ltd., India

Satyam develops commercial applications for its clients using the Alchemi framework.
More Information: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/08/31/stories/2005083100950400.htm

The University of Sao Paulo, Brazil

The Alchemi Executor Service is an adaptation to Alchemi Framework developed to a project we developed in collaboration with SENAC College of Computer Science and Technology. It consists of two programs: The ExecutorService (the service itself) and the ExecutorServiceControl, the service control and interface program.
More Information: http://www.ime.usp.br/~rdias/alchemi/index.htm

Private Grid Initiative, The Netherlands

The idea of the private grid initiative is that people start using the very respectable, often unused, computing resources they have at their disposal for new and different projects they have not thought of before. The initiative has set up a 10-node Alchemi grid that has been running since Jun 2004 and can be used free for innovative applications.

Grid Service Broker (GSB)

The GSB provides brokering of data-intensive grid applications and uses Alchemi to enable participation of Windows-based resources in the creation of global data grids. A global data-intensive grid collaboration utilising the GSB with Globus and Alchemi nodes has been demonstrated at the SC 2003 HPC Challenge.

Global Data-Intensive Grid Collaboration

The aim of this collaboration is to assemble applications, resources, and technologies of both tightly and loosely coordinated groups and institutions around the world in order to demonstrate the two HPC Challenges of SC 2003: Most Data-Intensive and Geographically Distributed Applications

Silica, a financial services company in South Africa

Silica has developed an Alchemi-based finance application for distributed fund administration.

Satyam Computers Applied Research Laboratory, India

Satyam has developed a micro-array data processing application for early detection of breast cancer that runs on the Alchemi enterprise grid platform.

Student Project @ Melbourne University

Agus Setiawan, David Adiutama, Julius Liman, Akshay Luther and Rajkumar Buyya, GridCrypt: High Performance Symmetric Key Cryptography using Enterprise Grids, Technical Report, GRIDS-TR-2004-6, Grid Computing and Distributed Systems Laboratory, University of Melbourne, Australia, July 7, 2004.

Abtract: Today's cryptanalysis on symmetric key cryptography is encouraging the use of larger key sizes and complex algorithms to achieve an unbreakable state. However, this leads an increase in computational complexity. This has promoted many researchers to develop high-performance symmetric key cryptography schemes using approaches such as the use of high-end computing hardware. Peer-to-peer (P2P) or enterprise grids are proven as one of the approaches for developing cost-effective high-end computing systems. By utilizing them, one can improve the performance of symmetric key cryptography through parallel execution. This approach makes it attractive for adoption by businesses to secure their documents. In this paper we propose and develop an application for symmetric key cryptography using enterprise grid middleware called Alchemi. An analysis and comparison of its performance is presented along with pointers to future work.

Student Project @ Melbourne University

Krishna Nadiminti, Yi-Feng Chiu, Nick Teoh, Akshay Luther, Srikumar Venugopal, and Rajkumar Buyya, ExcelGrid: A .NET Plug-in for Outsourcing Excel Spreadsheet Workload to Enterprise and Global Grids, Technical Report, GRIDS-TR-2004-8, Grid Computing and Distributed Systems Laboratory, University of Melbourne, Australia, August 17, 2004

Abtract: Most businesses today make use of spreadsheets for a lot of their daily activities. Spreadsheets are useful tools which enable quick analysis of data, and are within the reach of every person. Microsoft Excel is a widely used spreadsheet application and provides a very easy-to-use system, which any user can utilise to perform complex analysis on data without having to learn programming. As businesses grow, the requirement for more and more complex compute intensive analysis arises and there is a need to improve the performance of the data analysis process. To meet this requirement, we propose the use of grids as they allow us to harness geographically distributed computational resources for performing computations in parallel in order to speed up the execution. This paper describes a method to grid-enable Microsoft Excel, to execute spreadsheet computations on enterprise and global grids.

Student Project @ NMAMIT, Nitte, Karnataka, India.

Student Project @ Ambani Institute for ICT, Gujrat, India.

Project Ideas

Alchemi already harnesses the computing power of desktops with real users sitting behind them. The idea here is to involve that human user to enable interesting applications such as gaming, real-time collaboration etc.

This project would enable POV-Ray (a popular raytracing package) rendering on Alchemi grids. Raytracing is computationally intensive, readily parallelisable and used extensively for creating high-quality 3D images and animations.