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Yahoo and Computational Research Laboratories (CRL) want to support cloud computing research, and they're doing more than dedicating a couple of spokespeople (or even a room full of engineers) to the cause.  The two companies will instead work with the fourth fastest supercomputer in the world.

 CRL's EKA Supercomputer
(Photo Credit: TechGadget.in)

My home PC is six years old; to me, these numbers are so big as to have no meaning.  But here are some stats, anyway: "Called the EKA, CRL's supercomputer . . . has 14,400 processors, 28 terabytes of memory, 140 terabytes of disks, a peak performance of 180 trillion calculations per second (180 teraflops), and sustained computation capacity of 120 teraflops for the LINPACK benchmark."

Sounds like the sort of machine that could find the answer to life, the universe, and everything, eh?

But, at least in the short term, the EKA and this partnership "will help bridge the gap between traditional supercomputing and cloud computing research in India," according to a statement by S. Ramadorai, the chairman of CRL.

More specific goals, dates, and dollar amounts (it's possible that money changed hands) remain unknown.  Hopefully we'll hear something within the next 7.5 million years.