New interactive map shows world's largest computing grids

Computer grid

Supercomputing 2006 annual conference reveals map for the first time - <em>News</em>

Wednesday 6 November 2006
By Naomi Weston

A new interactive map overlaid on the Google Earth programme, shows for the first time nine of the world's largest computing Grids.

Dr Gidon Moont, a research associate in the High Energy Physics Group at Imperial College London, developed the visualisation for the map. It was showcased at the Supercomputing 2006 annual conference in Tampa, Florida, this November.

Europe mapThe Grid is the next step in computer interconnectivity. This new and rapidly evolving technology will enable the e-science community to further scientific collaboration around the world including sharing computer power and data storage over the internet. It is particularly useful for industrial and scientific communities that deal in large quantities of data.

One example of how the technology can be used is at CERN, the world’s largest particle physics laboratory in Switzerland and France. The British part of the Grid will provide the computing power for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), based at CERN. The LHC, the world’s largest particle accelerator, will be used to answer fundamental questions about how the universe is made.

The map's aim is to show how different Grids can share information about their resources and structures. It is supported by the Grid Interoperation Now (GIN) initiative, which is trying to bridge the differences between the various groups involved from all over the world, including the 19 universities and research centres across the UK.

Dr Gidon explains: "The ultimate aim is to make using any of the Grids as transparent as it is to use the web. When you request a web page from Japan to the UK, you do not have to worry about all the national networks the data passes through. Ultimately, using a computing resource on the Grid should be the same."

The team from Imperial, led by Dr David Colling, is part of the GridPP project, a collaboration of particle physicists and computer scientists from the UK and CERN, that is providing the UK contribution to the grid computing resources that will be available for the LHC experiment. This Grid is already operational, and is handling over 10 thousand jobs worldwide at any given time. The project is funded by the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC).

To see the map yourself, please go to http://gridportal.hep.ph.ic.ac.uk/rtm/  and download the GIN Map file. You will need to have the Google Earthprogram installed.

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