SOURCE: IBM

April 27, 2007 10:10 ET

Budapest Tech to Integrate Cell Broadband Engine Technology Into Curriculum for Fall 2007

Students From Across the Globe Attending Budapest Tech Will Have the Ability to Learn About the Cell Broadband Engine Through Joint Collaboration With IBM

BUDAPEST, HUNGARY -- (MARKET WIRE) -- April 27, 2007 -- Budapest Polytechnic Institution (Budapest Tech) announced today that for its upcoming Fall 2007 semester, it will offer a Bachelor of Science fully credited course in Computer Science and Engineering that equips students with the knowledge around the next generation Cell Broadband Engine™ (Cell/B.E.) technology.

Through joint collaboration with IBM (NYSE: IBM), Budapest Tech professors will instruct students on how Cell/B.E. technology evolved, the cross-industry applications where Cell/B.E. technology can help, and how the architecture is a future collaboration opportunity for companies and businesses.

The course is being supported through an IBM Faculty Award, an exclusive award given to Universities and Colleges across the globe to foster collaboration between researchers in leading universities worldwide and IBM, as well promote courseware and curriculum innovation to stimulate growth in disciplines and geographies that are strategic to IBM.

"We are pleased to be the recipients of this exclusive Faculty Award from IBM, which will allow our students to take full advantage of learning about a cutting-edge technology like the Cell Broadband Engine," said Professor Dezso Sima, Budapest Tech, John von Neumann Faculty of Informatics. "Having the opportunity to explore and share information around the Cell/B.E. will give our students tremendous insight into a technology that has the potential to have an impact in multiple industries -- industries they will soon be working in."

Additionally, as part of the Faculty Award, staff members of Budapest Tech and IBM's Global Engineering Solutions team are collaborating with experts from the Cell Analysis Lab of Semmelweis University and 3DHISTECH to explore how Cell/B.E. can speed up the process of digitizing histological, cytological and fluorescent slides of patient data. Each file size can range from 100 - 150 MB per slide, with up to 300 slides needed to be digitized each day.

Since virtual microscopy software relies heavily on multi-threading, 3DHISTECH has great expectations for the Cell/B.E. "Both companies, IBM and 3DHISTECH are about pursuing continuous innovation and with this new technology we can achieve faster visualization and analysis of virtual slides," said Béla Molnár, CEO of 3DHISTECH.

"This is all about collaboration and encouraging innovation across the globe," said Hina Shah, Development Director, Cell Ecosystem, Systems & Technology Group, IBM. "We are thrilled to be working with the John von Neumann Faculty of Informatics of Budapest Tech and helping their staff members and students learn about the Cell Broadband Engine technology and growing the ecosystem around this powerful processor."

IBM is also currently hosting a first-of-its-kind programming contest -- the Cell University Challenge -- for college and university students in 25 different countries, offering cash prizes and awards for the most innovative applications of the breakthrough Cell Broadband Engine. All information on eligibility, rules and requirements, and entry applications can be found at: http://www-304.ibm.com/jct09002c/university/students/contests/cell/index.html

The revolutionary Cell/B.E. -- jointly developed by IBM, Sony group and Toshiba -- is a breakthrough design featuring a central processing core based on IBM's industry-leading Power Architecture™ technology and eight synergistic processing elements (SPE). Cell/B.E. "supercharges" compute-intensive applications, offering fast performance for computer entertainment and handhelds, virtual reality, wireless downloads, real-time video chat, interactive TV shows and other "image-hungry" computing environments. The groundbreaking Cell/B.E. processor appears in products such as SCE's PS3 and Toshiba's Cell/B.E. Reference Set, a development tool for Cell/B.E. applications, as well as the IBM BladeCenter QS20. It is also embedded in custom Cell/B.E.-based offerings from IBM Global Engineering Solutions.

About IBM

For more information about IBM, please visit http://www.ibm.com

About Budapest Tech

Budapest Tech came into being on January 1, 2000 through the integration of three illustrious polytechnics, with up to 125 years of history. As an internationally reputed institution of scientific research, development and education, Budapest Tech offers technology focused education in all relevant technical fields to approximately 14,000 students in a modern, stimulating environment. Budapest Tech has played an initiative role in the implementation of the Bologna process in Hungary, with its Computer Science and Engineering program being one of the first four BS programs having been offered in Hungary. The John von Neumann Faculty of Informatics is one of the five constituting faculties of Budapest Tech. In 2007, the Computer Science and Engineering degree issued by the Faculty was ranked as No. 2. from among a total of 19 IT faculties in Hungary.

About Cell Analysis Lab, Semmelweis University

The Cell Analysis Laboratory in part of the 2nd Department of Medicine, Semmelweis University, Budapest. The laboratory concentrates on early recognition of colon diseases (tumor, inflammation) at the cellular level. The main topics of its research are isolation of cells and cell components taken from biopsy, tissues and peripheral blood samples, diagnostics research and therapeutic target research. The applied methods include micro array and chip technology, immuno-histochemistry and fluorescent immuno-histochemistry with the use of virtual microscopy.

About 3DHISTECH

3DHISTECH Ltd. is a leading developer and manufacturer of digital slide scanning hardware and software products for every aspect of virtual microscopy. 3DHISTECH brings complete solutions to the pathologist and constantly explores new methods in pathological diagnostics. Béla Molnár, MD, PhD founded the company 10 years ago. As a pioneer of virtual microscopy 3DHISTECH stays on top of this fast developing field and leads the way to new technologies.

IBM, BladeCenter, Power Architecture and QS20 are trademarks of IBM Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

"PLAYSTATION" is a registered trademark and "PS3" is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.

"Cell Broadband Engine" is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.

All other company/product names and service marks may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

See http://www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml.