Dear All,

On behalf of the Gridbus Project, I am pleased to inform you that we have
released Alchemi
software, which is a .NET Enterprise Grid Framework. For more information please
see message below.
I hope that you will find it useful. If you need any specific
details/clarification on Alchemi,
please let us know.

Thanks
Raj
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Alchemi [.NET Enterprise Grid Framework] v0.8.0 Released by the Gridbus Project
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Alchemi is an enterprise grid computing framework for Windows built using .NET
with the primary goal
of being easy to use. It provides: a) the runtime machinery to construct a
high-throughput
enterprise grid environment out of underutilised desktops and b) a programming
environment to
develop grid applications.

Constructing enterprise grids is as simple as installing the Alchemi Manager on
one machine and
installing the Alchemi Executor, playing the role of worker agents, on each
machine that is to be
part of the enterprise grid. The flexible execution model allows Executors to be
configured as
"dedicated" (execution is managed by the Manager) or "non- dedicated" (execution
is managed by the
user on a voluntary basis). Alchemi operates transparently on users' machines -
users whose desktops
are part of the grid are not affected by grid software running on their machines
since user
applications are given priority.

Alchemi allows flexibility in application composition. You can employ the grid
thread model to write
grid applications in any .NET-supported language. Alternatively, existing
applications can be
grid-enabled either programmatically or declaratively using the file-based grid
job model that uses
XML for job representation. Drag-and-grop components can be used to compose grid
applications with
minimal effort. Several sample applications that demonstrate the various
features of Alchemi are
included. Additionally, a scheduling API is available for writing custom
user-level schedulers.

A web services interface allows interoperability with custom grid middleware.

A role-based model is employed for application security. Only authorised users
(by way of membership
to a group) are permitted to conduct appropriate activities e.g. run an
application, administer
users etc.

An management and monitoring console application allows users to monitor the
status of the grid
including applications and participating nodes in addition to allowing
management of users.

Alchemi is used by several organisations and projects worldwide such as:

- CSIRO (Australia) for the development of an application framework for the
creation and parallel
execution of environmental simulation models
- The Private Grid Initiative (The Netherlands) as a testbed for exploring
innovative grid applications
- A financial services company (South Africa) for developing a proof-of-concept
distributed fund
administration system
- The University of Melbourne as a tool for teaching grid computing and as a
platform for several
honours and masters projects
- As part of the Global Data-Intensive Grid Collaboration demonstration at the
SC 2003 HPC Challenge

This release contains:

- Alchemi.Executor-0.8.0.msi - Installer for the Alchemi Executor Windows
executable
- Alchemi.Manager-0.8.0.1.msi - Installer for the Alchemi Manager Windows
executable
- Alchemi.XPManager-0.8.0.msi - Installer for the Alchemi Cross Platform Manager
ASP.NET web service
- Alchemi-0.8.0-sdk.zip - Alchemi SDK containing the API, sample applications
and the
admininstration/monitoring console

Alchemi is open source, released under the GPL license.

Alchemi can be downloaded from: http://www.alchemi.net

Alchemi is being developed as part of the Gridbus Project
(http://www.gridbus.org) at the Grid
Computing and Distributed Systems (GRIDS) Laboratory at the University of
Melbourne, Australia
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