Intel and China's Ministry of Education recently teamed up to build a national computing grid linking 100 of China's universities by a network that will combine their computing power to create a shared supercomputer by 2006.

The MOE expects the grid to have a performance of more than 15 teraflops, making it one of the world's most powerful high-performance computing grids, according to a statement from Intel, who will work with server vendors to provide the schools with computers equipped with its Itanium 2 processors.

The grid is planned to be used for work in life sciences, the petroleum industry, earthquake research and commercial financial projects, at the same time helping power the 'Digital Olympics' initiative, in support of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The universities linked to the grid will be connected by the high-speed Internet-based China Education and Research Network (CERNET).