| From: |
| "Bernadette Rose (US)" <BernadetteR@Text100.com> |
| To: |
| |
| Subject: |
| Sony, IBM and Butterfly.net announce the activation of a first-of
-its kind Linux-based computing grid! |
| Date: |
| Thu, 27 Feb 2003 10:55:44 -0500 |
Today, the battle for dominance in the multi-billion dollar video game
market goes on the Grid.
Sony, IBM and Grid pioneer Butterfly.net announced the activation of a
first-of-its kind Linux-based computing grid that makes it easier and
cheaper to run Sony PlayStation 2 games on the Internet. The massive
"Butterfly Grid" is so revolutionary, it can support millions of concurrent
PlayStation ®2 online users around the world, with no limit to the number of
players who can be on the Grid at one time. It was designed by Butterfly
and IBM to operate as reliably as a television, radio or telephone.
The Butterfly Grid for PlayStation®2 online gaming will be officially
unveiled next week at the annual Game Developer's Conference in San Jose.
The innovative deal with IBM and Butterfly, operators of the industry's
first computing grid, is the latest move by Sony to utilize open-source
technologies to help developers, publishers and service providers design and
run PlayStation 2 games online ever more efficiently. IBM strongly
supports open-source software such as Linux and Grid, in which the
underlying code is public and open for modification, unlike Microsoft's
proprietary software.
The IBM-powered "Butterfly Grid" for Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.'s
PlayStation ®2 works by linking multiple servers to work together as a
virtual supercomputer, seamlessly shifting processing tasks among individual
machines. Developers and publishers that utilize the Butterfly
Grid to support their PlayStation ® games can allocate server resources via
the Grid to popular games, maintain servers without interrupting game-play
and develop very advanced games using simple, open-source scripting
language. Such games can be expensive to maintain because publishers have to
overbuild networks to be able to handle peak demand. With the grid approach,
shared computing resources can by shifted on the fly by IBM and Butterfly to
wherever they're needed most.
Press release pasted below. Please call me if you have questions, or would
like to speak to an IBM executive: 212-871-4077.
Cheers,
Bernadette Rose
Text 100 for IBM
212-871-4077
IBM AND BUTTERFLY TO RUN PLAYSTATION®2 GAMES ON GLOBAL GRID
Butterfly Grid Will Support Massive Numbers of Video Gamers Online
San Jose, C.A., February 27th, 2003 ... IBM and Grid pioneer Butterfly.net
announced today that Butterfly has signed a Play Station®2 Tools and
Middleware agreement with Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. to provide
technology and networking services for the PlayStation®2 computer
entertainment system. As part of the agreement, IBM and Butterfly activated
a first-of-its-kind computing grid that allows online game developers to
take advantage of the advanced capabilities of PlayStation®2 by more
efficiently provisioning resources to meet the demands of console gamers.
The Butterfly Grid for PlayStation®2 online gaming will be unveiled next
week at the annual Game Developer's Conference in San Jose. The developer's
Grid for building and testing online games is hosted by IBM.
PlayStation®2 game developers can ensure that their games are always
available online and operate at peak performance by engineering their games
directly on a live computing grid. Registered developers will receive a
software development kit with sample games, client libraries, server
software, documentation and technical support. Developers can access the
Grid by registering at HYPERLINK "http://www.butterfly.net
"www.butterfly.net.
"We've enjoyed very rapid progress and outstanding performance while
developing and testing VibeForce on the Butterfly Grid," said Curt
Benefield, Chief Executive Officer of Sherman3D, a video game developer with
offices in Malaysia and the United States. "The Grid has allowed us to build
the bulk of our game logic, our motion models and our artificial
intelligence systems with familiar tools and standard interfaces. Our
engineers can get close to the metal on the client, the servers and over the
network to bring the action-backed, richly-rewarding console experience
online."
The Butterfly Grid takes advantage of the Open Grid Services Architecture
(OGSA), an important new standard for high-performance, ultra-reliable
computing. OGSA supports several of the most critical functions of
successful online games: availability, security and performance. The Grid's
OGSA-compliant software monitors the processing load on Linux®-based IBM
BladeCenters populated with 14 Blades, each with two Intel Xeon®
processors. When the Grid determines there are too many players connected to
any particular server, the Grid automatically reconfigures underutilized
Blades to support the most popular game-play and seamlessly transfers
players to these Blades.
"We are delighted to partner with IBM to meet the requirements of
PlayStation®2 developers for a highly responsive, Grid computing network
that is optimized for online gaming," said David Levine, CEO of
Butterfly.net. "PlayStation®2, with its powerful graphics engine, surround
sound and broadband capabilities, is the perfect vehicle for gamers to
participate in new, fully experiential forms of entertainment online."
"The Butterfly Grid is the most innovative online video gaming platform
ever, incorporating open infrastructure technologies from IBM to mirror the
transparent, yet highly responsive ecosystem of the Internet," said Scott
Penberthy, vice president of Business Development, IBM Global Services.
"Playstation®2 game developers and service providers can utilize the
Butterfly Grid to access computing resources on demand, reduce costs and
better deploy their entertainment properties online."
The Butterfly Grid for PlayStation®2 Online Gaming
The Butterfly Grid is a new network gaming environment for Sony Computer
Entertainment Inc.'s PlayStation ®2 that enables online video game providers
to reliably deliver state-of-the-art games to millions of concurrent users.
Traditionally, online video games have segmented players onto separate
servers, limiting the number that could interact and creating reliability
and support obstacles. In the first generation of online games, when one
server is down, overloaded, or patches are being installed, game-play comes
to a halt. With Butterfly's breakthrough grid technology, the server
interaction is completely transparent and seamless to the user - delivering
a resilient gaming infrastructure where servers can be added, or replaced,
without interrupting game-play.
The Butterfly Grid is hosted by IBM and powered by IBM Dual Xeon Blade
Servers running Linux®. IBM's WebSphere and DB2 software, along with
Butterfly.net's game servers, gateways, networking software and artificial
intelligence systems provide an integrated platform for online game
development, deployment and ongoing operations. The Butterfly Grid's
OGSA-compliant, XML-based Game Configuration Specification allows service
providers to extend the Butterfly Grid out to the edge of the network,
enabling dedicated gaming services and networks, voice communications and
single sign-on across multiple titles for potentially lucrative new
subscription revenue streams. The grid design is ultra-resilient, offering
the potential to support over one million simultaneous players from each
facility in a 24/7 environment with automatic fail over capability.
Computing Grids
An emerging model of computing, Grids are built with clusters of servers
joined together over the Internet, using protocols provided by the Globus
open source community and other open technologies, including Linux® and
Python. Like the World Wide Web enables people to share content over
standard, open protocols, Grid protocols emerging from the Globus open
source community are enabling organizations to create virtual organizations
sharing applications, data and computing power over the Internet to
collaborate, tackle large problems and lower the cost of computing.
Butterfly.net is working with the Global Grid Forum to ensure that any video
game developed according to publicly available specifications and Internet
open standards can draw resources-on-demand from the Butterfly Grid. The
Globus Toolkit, available by download from www.globus.org
<http://www.globus.org>, provides authorization and accounting functions,
allocates hardware resources, configures game-specific logic and monitors
performance on the Butterfly Grid.
IBM is the world's leading supplier of Grid systems and services and is
working with the Globus open source community and others to extend Grid
computing into commercial environments. IBM Global Services offers the
complete range of IT skills needed to build, run and maintain Computing
Grids.
###
* "PlayStation" is a registered trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment
Inc.
About IBM:
IBM is the world's largest information technology company, with 80 years of
leadership in helping businesses innovate. Drawing on resources from across
IBM and key Business Partners, IBM offers a wide range of services,
solutions and technologies that enable customers, large and small, to take
full advantage of the new era of e-business on demand. For more information
about IBM, visit http://www.ibm.com.
About Butterfly.net:
Butterfly.net is the leading network and server technology provider for
immersive online games that connect players on PCs, consoles and mobile
devices. Butterfly.net(tm) and Butterfly Grid(tm) are trademarks of
Butterfly.net, Inc. For more information about Butterfly.net, visit
http://www.butterfly.net/.
