EXPANDING ITS COMPUTING on-demand initiative up to the supercomputer level, IBM on Thursday announced a new option that allows corporate users to either buy Unix- or Linux-based cluster solutions or just access such resources on an as-needed basis.

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The new Supercomputing e-Business on-demand service is intended to act as a virtualized resource, helping users turn their fixed costs into variable costs by appropriately matching up a supercomputer's power and capacity to an individual company's computing demands.

In a related announcement, IBM said the first company to choose the on-demand service is PGS Data Processing, a division of Petroleum Geo-Services, for a three-month-long seismic imaging project based in the Gulf of Mexico. Company officials said they chose the IBM service because seismic imaging services typically used demand low-cost but numerically intensive applications.

PGS, one of the world's largest petroleum services companies, believes it can realize a cost savings of $1.5 million a year in deploying the new service.

"PGS has been looking for a more flexible business model which addresses peak computing requirements, can assure rapid response to our customers, but minimizes our long-term, incremental cost commitments," said Chris Usher, president of Global Data Processing.

With the new on-demand service, PGS officials believe they can more effectively scale their computing needs to handle requests for its more urgent deep-water imaging solutions. They also believe it will help stimulate time-to-market for various emerging technologies that need short but intensive periods of computing.

"Customers in some sectors want access to large-scale computing power in

short bursts," said Dave Turek, vice president of IBM Linux clusters and

grid solutions. "We think this supercomputing offering can change how business is done," he said.

Certain segments such as petroleum, digital media, and life sciences only need the raw power of a super computer at selected times. And when they don't, their system sits dormant. The new service is set up to help users resolve sometimes massive computational problems using the latest hardware and software technologies.

IBM officials said they plan to create large Intel and IBM Power-processor-based supercomputer grids designed to support the e-business on-demand product offerings for customers. The first IBM supercomputing hosting facility will be based in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., with other national and international facilities scheduled to follow. All of the facilities will be linked together.

The grid will be made up of hundreds of Big Blue's eServer p655 Unix-based servers that can hold up to 128 Power 4 chips in one server, along with a large Linux cluster built around the company's eServer x335 and x345 systems using Intel's Xeon processors, IBM officials said.