[from "unwired" listserv (http://www.unwired.cc/). addresses parallel
computing solution for navajo technical college.]

San Diego Supercomputer Experts Help
Navajos Build "An Internet to the Hogan"

January 25, 2007

By Paul K. Mueller

Navajos in the American Southwest, many of whom have never had access
to a personal telephone, will soon make a significant leap into the
Internet Age, thanks in part to resources and expertise provided by
the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at UC San Diego.

The Navajos, who refer to themselves as the "Dine" (dee-nay), will
celebrate "An Internet to the Hogan and Dine Grid Event" on Monday,
Jan. 29, at Navajo Technical College in Crownpoint, New Mexico.
Highlights of the event include their official acceptance of a
"Little Fe" mini-supercomputer from the TeraGrid – the world's
largest supercomputing network – and a demonstration of advanced
radio technology.


Little Fe (in contrast to "big iron," slang for supercomputers) is a
small cluster of parallel processors that work together as a single
small supercomputer. Developed by a team of computer scientists and
professors for their students, it provides both a research-level
parallel cluster and an opportunity for students to learn parallel
processing.

According to Tom Davis, dean of instruction at the Navajo college,
the project is "designed to end the digital divide in the eastern
agency of the Navajo Nation" – a vast, stark, high-desert landscape
poorly served by commercial utility companies, where traveling 10
miles to make a phone call is not uncommon.

Staff at SDSC, among them Jim Hale and Diane Baxter, are working on
interrelated projects with Navajo Technical College (NTC). The first
phase will build a major wireless "pipe" using the Lambda Rail and
Internet 2 from Albuquerque to the college, in northwest New Mexico.
Through an extended mesh of wireless broadband towers that will be
built by students, faculty and community members, NTC will offer
broadband connectivity to 31 community centers, and later to schools,
clinics, hospitals, police departments, fire houses and homes.

"SDSC, a member of the TeraGrid collaboration, is eager to help
demonstrate the promise of this technology," said Baxter, director of
education at SDSC. "We look forward to working with the Navajo Nation
to help build this bridge to the future."

Working with Hale and Baxter at SDSC is Jared Ribble, 22, a Navajo
student learning to harness the powerful resources of supercomputers.
"Helping put the Dine on the grid, and bringing the Internet to the
hogan," he says, "gives us a wealth of opportunities. The addition of
Little Fe will enable complex research projects to be conducted
anywhere on the grid. A small tribal college can now have the
research capabilities of a major university."