SI2-SSE: Connecting Cyberinfrastructure with the Cooperative Computing Tools

University Of Notre Dame, Notre Dame IN

Investigators

Abstract

This project supports the maintenance and development of the Cooperative Computing Tools. This software package is designed to enable non-privileged users to harness hundreds to thousands of cores from multiple clusters, clouds, and grids simultaneously. The main components of the software package include Parrot, a virtual file system that interfaces with multiple distributed storage systems, and Makeflow, a workflow engine that interfaces with multiple computing systems. This project will develop, maintain, and support the software across a wide variety of operating systems and national scale cyberinfrastructure in support of high impact scientific applications in fields such as bioinformatics, biometrics, data mining, high energy physics, and molecular dynamics. Large scale computing systems such as cluster, clouds, and grids now make it easy for end users to purchase large amounts of computing power at the touch of a button. However, these computing systems are difficult to harness because they each present a different user interface, principle of operation, and programming model. This project addresses this problem by supporting the development of the Cooperative Computing Tools, a software package that makes it possible for ordinary computer applications to move seamlessly between different service providers. The software is primarily of interest to researchers in scientific domains that require large amounts of computation. It is currently used by researchers in the fields of bioinformatics, biometrics, data mining, high energy physics, and molecular dynamics.