Posted on Monday, October 06 2008 @ 23:27 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
Device Daily
reports CERN now has world's largest computing grid, their grid consists of more than 140 computer centers from around the globe to analyze 15 million GB of data coming from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
It seems like particle physics projects are very important in developing better computing grids all around the world, not only in the U.S., but I will let Ed Seidel to explain it better - “particle physics projects such as the LHC have been a driving force for the development of worldwide computing grids.”
“The benefits from these grids are now being reaped in areas as diverse as mathematical modeling and drug discovery,” added Mr. Seidel, the director of the Office of Cyberinfrastructure at the National Science Foundation.
World’s biggest computing grid is using dedicated optical fiber networks to send the data from LHC to 11 so-called Tier-1 computer centers in Asia, Europa, and North America. The latter includes New York’s Brookhaven National Laboratory and the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois. These two are very important as they distribute the data from CERN’s LHC to about 140 Tier-2 computing centers worldwide.
“Our ability to manage data at this scale is the product of several years of intense testing. Today’s result demonstrates the excellent and successful collaboration we have enjoyed with countries all over the world. Without these international partnerships, such an achievement would be impossible,” says the leader of the WLCG project, Ian Bird.
