We present results on the QCD equation of state, obtained with two different improved dynamical staggered fermion actions and almost physical quark masses. Lattice cut-off effects are discussed in detail as results for three different lattice spacing
s are available now, i.e. results have been obtained on lattices with temporal extent of $N_tau=4,6$ and 8. Furthermore we discuss the Taylor expansion approach to non-zero baryon chemical potential by means of an expansion of the pressure. We use the expansion coefficients to calculate various fluctuations and correlations among hadronic charges. We find that the correlations reproduce the qualitative behavior of the resonance gas model below $T_c$ and start to agree with the free gas predictions for $Tgsim 1.5T_c$.
We describe details of 1/a ~ 2.2Gev, L ~ 3 fm dynamical domain wall fermion simulations which will allow us to do a more systematic continuum extrapolation in combination with existing simu- lations. Details of the simulations such as algorithm choic
es and machine performance, as well as results of basic measurements are presented. These configurations are presently being generated on the QCDOC machine at Edinburgh and the DOE QCDOC machine at Brookhaven as part of a joint project with LHPC.
