SCI: TeraGrid Resource Partners

Department Of Energy Oak Ridge Operations Office

Investigators

Abstract

The Extensible Terascale Facility (ETF) is the next stage in the evolution of NSF large-scale cyberinfrastructure for enabling scientific and engineering research. The ETF enables researchers to address challenging scientific and engineering problems by utilizing the integrated computing resources, data collections, instruments and visualization capabilities of nine resource partners (RP). On October 1, 2004, the ETF concluded a three-year construction effort to construct the TeraGrid and is now entering the operations phase. The TeraGrid resource partners include; the University of Chicago/Argonne National Laboratory (UC/ANL), the San Diego Supercomputer Center at University of California, San Diego (UCSD), the Texas Advanced Computing Center at UT-Austin, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at UIUC, Indiana University, Purdue University, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center. A separate proposal was submitted to NSF on October 19, 2004 for the TeraGrid Grid Infrastructure Group (GIG). Under the direction of Charlie Catlett at UC/ANL, the GIG will be responsible for coordination of development activities for the TeraGrid with subcontracts to the partner sites. The resource partners will each have independent agreements with NSF, but will work closely with the GIG to implement the TeraGrid vision. ORNL RP Project Vision and Goals Other RP partners in the ETF provide high-end computing and data storage resources. The unique contribution of ORNL is the connection of instrument data sources to the ETF and the development of a neutron science gateway that will allow neutron scientists to use TeraGrid resources to analyze their data, including comparison of experiment with simulation. ORNL will work closely with the GIG and other RP efforts to implement local instances of ETF-wide functionality or utilize ETF-wide services provided by the other partners, for example the TeraGrid Operations Center. Neutron science applications will be deployed through a science gateway and use ETF wide computing and data storage resources. ORNL RP sees the ETF partnership not as a collaboration between competing institutions but as a collaboration of complementary services and functionality to create a unique, large scale research facility for the national interest. This proposal outlines the plan for ORNL to participate as a RP in the TeraGrid team by providing the neutron science community with access to this unique computational science facility. A next-generation neutron source, the$1.4 billion SNS, is being built by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) at ORNL. The SNS will provide an order of magnitude greater flux than any other facility in the world and will be available to all of the nation's scientists, independent of funding source, on a reviewed basis. With this new capability, the neutron science community is facing order of magnitude larger data sets and is at a critical point for data analysis and simulation. They recognize the need for new ways to manage and analyze data to optimize both beam time and scientific output. The TeraGrid will provide the new capabilities that they need. The primary target community is all users of neutron scattering facilities. This is on the order of a few thousand users per facility (many scientists use more than one facility). There are five (5) facilities in the U.S. and a few dozen world-wide. The ORNL RP cannot and does not assume that these users will rely exclusively on the NSTG and the TeraGrid as a solution to their emerging problems. Their allegiance must be earned. One of the key metrics of this RP's success is the extent to which it can persuade this community to use these resources. The key will be to provide an infrastructure that helps the community reach beyond what would otherwise have been accomplished. Secondarily, there will be impacts on the conduct of science at other large user facilities such as light sources and microscopy centers.