Sun Microsystems Inc. announced a series of new programs for developers to take advantage of and create applications for the Sun Grid Compute Utility. These new programs include providing developers access to 100 free CPU hours on the Sun Grid; a contest in which developers can win up to $100,000 in prizes; a private project space for independent software vendors (ISVs); and a Compute Server community project.

"Developers represent the single largest community with interest in and ability to leverage Grid technology," said Stuart Wells, executive vice president of utility computing at Sun. "Since we made Sun Grid available to the public in March, ISVs and application developers have been asking for tools and programs to support their development of Sun Grid applications. With today's announcements, Sun is making it easier for these developers to create Grid-enabled applications. Sun is the first and only vendor to offer developers access to enormous compute power over the network and our new programs will allow developers to easily build applications and further their Sun Grid knowledge and skill set."

"AMD has long supported Sun's leadership in bringing grid computing to the mainstream and we are pleased to work with the developer community to increase the industry's awareness and use of the benefits of this technology -- which may include better system utilization, better scalability, increased overall performance and reduction of total cost of ownership," said Marty Seyer, senior vice president of commercial and performance computing at AMD. "Sun Grid, which is powered by AMD64 technology, lets developers deliver applications more rapidly to market."

The Sun Grid programs announced today include:

• 100 free CPU hours on Sun Grid -- Sun is offering a promotion of 100 free CPU hours for qualified Sun Grid developers who register/join Sun's Grid developer community at www.developer.network.com. The Sun Grid developer community now provides developers with access to a full suite of collaborative development tools, such as Lifecycle Management and Source Code Control, hosted for Sun by CollabNet. In addition, the community provides documentation, code samples, sample applications, forums, chats and newsgroups to assist Sun Grid developers.

• Sun Grid Compute Utility Cool Apps Prize for Innovation contest -- Sun announced a contest where developers can compete for $50,000 in prizes. Additional contests will be announced later this year, bringing the total potential winnings to $100,000. See http://coolapps.developer.network.com site for complete rules -- developers can get started today.

• Private Project Space for ISVs -- Sun is making available private project space at http://www.developer.network.com for ISVs to leverage the community's collaborative development         
  environment while porting applications to the Sun Grid -- or having Sun Grid-enable their application.

• Compute Server Community Project  -- Sun is creating a Sun Grid developer community project -- the Compute Server Project -- that aims to enable developers to easily and efficiently use Sun Grid for the distributed execution of parallel computations. Inviting collaboration with the Java technology, Solaris OS and NetBeans software developer communities, the Sun Grid Developer Community facilitates direct and open engagement with developers who are interested in exploring how to make the leap to utility-based Grid computing. Members of the Sun Grid Developer Community can download an early access version of the Grid Compute Server Plug-in for NetBeans IDE from the Compute Server project by visiting  http://computeserver.developer.network.com.

• Grid Compute Server Plug-in for Net Beans IDE released under Apache License, v2.0 -- The  Apache license helps ensure that developers may enjoy broad freedoms in their use and testing of the technology.

For more information on developer programs for Sun Grid, please visit www.developer.network.com.