HP (HPQ) has announced details of its support for ChinaGrid, one of the world's largest grid computing implementations.

The grid initiative by the Chinese government is intended to extend information technology resources and services to thousands of researchers and the more than 290 million students in the country's university system.

HP is the primary technology infrastructure provider for ChinaGrid, which has 15-teraflops of computing power, comprised mostly of industry-standard HP ProLiant and HP Integrity servers.

ChinaGrid is a national effort that runs under the direction of the China Ministry of Education. It is intended to facilitate the secure sharing of loosely coupled infrastructure and services within and across geographic and organizational boundaries.

"The success of ChinaGrid is due to the collaborative efforts of technology leaders like HP," said Hai Jin, chief scientist of ChinaGrid, professor and Dean of the School of Computer Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology. "HP Labs has been working closely with the ChinaGrid team to develop one of the world's most advanced grid monitoring systems."

A team of researchers from the new HP Labs in Beijing and from various Chinese universities is currently developing monitoring, measurement, security and visualization mechanisms for ChinaGrid.

The team recently completed an advanced display wall and visualization system that showcases the ChinaGrid monitoring system. The demonstration was built exclusively with HP industry-standard server technology and display monitors and projectors, while it runs visualization software developed at Tsinghua University. When completed, the system will be known as the ChinaGrid National Monitoring Center.

"HP is a leader in grid technologies and continues to invest in research and development efforts to advance grid, where application services execute on shared IT resources," said Meichun Hsu, director, HP Labs China. "We are proud to play an important role in a collaborative and secure grid computing environment for this visionary undertaking by the Ministry of Education."

HP Labs researchers also are working on software agents that can be plugged into the grid system to enhance security. The team is developing an active feedback system as a service, with a solution based on HP OpenView Radia software and service-oriented architecture.