Coastal FCU Joins IBM ResearchProject

RALEIGH, N.C. - (11/29/05) -- Coastal FCU, a former IBM creditunion, said has become the first financial institution to join theWorld Community Grid, a global computing project overseen by IBM.The project seeks to harness unused processing power in idlecomputers to create a flexible infrastructure for researchers torun calculations for projects that will benefit global humanitarianissues, such as infectious and genetic diseases, natural disastersand environmental research. The credit union has initiallydedicated a set of desktop computers that are exclusively runningthe grid agent software. The computers, which previously sat idleas surplus equipment, are now busily processing information aroundthe clock for the grid's current initiative, AIDS therapy research.The program contacts the grid server via the internet, requests apacket of data, runs the computations and then sends the resultsback to the grid before starting the process over again.