Grid computing in China

Grid computing presents a new trend to distributed computation and Internet applications, which can construct a virtual single image of heterogeneous resources, provide uniform application interface and integrate widespread computational resources into super, ubiquitous and transparent aggregation. In the adoption of Grid computing, China, who is facing more resource heterogeneity and other specific demands, has put much effort on both research and practical utilization. In this paper, we introduce the major China Grid research projects and their perspective applications. First we give the overview of the four government-sponsored programs in Grid, namely the China National Grid, ChinaGrid, NSFC Grid, and ShanghaiGrid. Then we present six representative ongoing Grid systems in details, which are categorized into Grid middleware and Grid application. This paper provides the general picture of Grid computing in China, and shows the great efforts, devotion and confidence in China to use Grid technology to boost the society, economics and scientific research.