TeraGrid Extension: Bridging to XD

University Of Chicago, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

The TeraGrid (TG) is an advanced, nationally distributed, open cyberinfrastructure (CI) comprised of supercomputing, storage, analysis, and visualization systems, data services, and science gateways, connected by high-bandwidth networks, integrated by coordinated policies and operations, and supported by computing and technology experts, that enables and supports leading-edge scientific discovery and promotes science and technology education. The TG has enabled numerous scientific achievements in almost all fields of science and engineering. The TG is driven by researchers and educators requiring computational resources and services which would be extremely difficult or impossible to obtain in their local/campus environments. The largest fraction of TG resources are used in the support of peer-reviewed scientific and engineering projects enabled by the advanced CI resources of the TG. However, ?small? allocations are available to any individual willing to apply. Through the coordinated capabilities of its staff, resources, and services, TG enables cutting-edge, often transformative science and engineering, by experts and expert teams of users making highly-skilled use of TG resources. In addition, the TG also supports a wider community of much larger, domain-focused groups of users that may not possess specific high-performance computing skills but who are addressing important scientific research and education problems. The broader impact of TG activities include outreach to communities beyond the traditional set of HPC users, raising the awareness of future scientists in schools and science fairs on the power of computation and data mining, and spreading TG knowledge about how to build cyberinfrastructure, and how to bring it to the user community. Advanced support joins researchers with TG experts to increase efficiency and productivity, define best practices, and create a vanguard of early adopters of new capabilities. Support for Science Gateways provides community-designed interfaces to TG resources and extends access to data collections, community collaboration tools, and visualization capabilities to a much wider audience of users. Performing transformative science and engineering on the TG depends on its resources working in concert, which requires a coordinated user support system, centralized mechanisms for user access and information, a common allocations process and allocations management, and a coordinated user environment. Underlying this user support environment, the TG maintains a robust, centrally managed infrastructure for networking, security and authentication, and operational services. In this one year extension, the TG will. * Continue to support several resources into 2011. This includes the Track 2 systems, Pople (PSC), a shared memory system particularly useful to a number of newer users, three IA32-64 clusters and a new resource employing flash memory and virtual SMP nodes called DASH (SDSC). * Allow high-throughput, Open Science Grid-style jobs. * Enable exploration of interoperability and technology sharing. * Provide a transition platform for users coming from university- or departmental-level resources. * Support unique compute platforms and massive storage systems. * Integrate new systems from additional OCI awards. * Provide vigorous efforts in training, education and outreach to retain larger and more diverse communities in advancing scientific discovery. * Engage under-represented communities, and continue to build strong partnerships in order to offer the best possible HPC learning and workforce development programs and increase the number of well-prepared STEM researchers and educators.