Australia's research and development sector received a boost today as Sun Microsystems announced a deal with the Australian Partnership for Advanced Computing (APAC), to install a national computing facility for scientific research.

Sun will pump AU$5 million into the continual development of techniques for computational research over a three-year period.

It will be "the biggest academic and research computer that Australia's ever had," Sun's ACT branch manager, David Cocking told ZDNet Australia. "It will enable scientists to work on problems never worked on before in this country," he said.

APAC consists of six academic and research institutions including the CSIRO and Australian National University (ANU). APAC has set up an expertise program to identify areas of research to be carried out on the new facility.

The facility will enable researchers to perform more complex computations for scientific research such as; financial modeling, which deals with complex business predictions; interactive visualisation, the calculation of data to produce three dimensional images of an area of study; and, computational chemistry and biology such as gene mapping.

Situated at the ANU, the super computer will be accessed through the Australian Academic and Research Network (AARNET), which will link all universities and research institutions in the country to the central system.

According to Cocking, industry professionals will be welcomed also, but will probably be charged a fee to use the facility.

"In the past Australians have left the country in order to get access to this type of research, the facility will help stop the brain drain," Cocking said.

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