Programmers to link grid-software features

The National Center for Supercomputing Applications has been awarded $1 million to bridge two open-source software applications important to next-generation software for sharing computer resources. The National Science Foundation is funding the project, called GridShib, which acts as a link between software called Shibboleth created by the Internet2 effort, and the Globus Toolkit created by the Globus Alliance, the NCSA said Tuesday.

The Globus Toolkit is part of a foundation for linking computers into grids that share computing tasks. The Internet2 alliance is working on next-generation, high-speed networking. The GridShib project aims to link the Globus Toolkit software for user authentication with Shibboleth software to manage large groups of users and their privileges.