Content about Europe

Announcement - Registration open: 3rd Grid and e-Collaboration Workshop for the Earth Science Community, 16-17 January, Italy The conference will be held at the European Space Agency Centre for Earth Observation: ESA-ESRINImage courtesy of ESARegistration is open for the third Grid and e-Collaboration Workshop for the Earth Science Community, to be held 16 and 17 January 2008 in Frascati, Italy.Abstract submissions are also invited. The conference will bring together large earth science data repositories and high-performance scientific data processing applications, and will be an opportunity to enable and support new collaborations between research projects and operational services providers.This year’s workshop focuses on data repositories, presenting updates on recent developments and reviewing and analyzing emerging community requirements.The workshop will bring together academic institutes and industry with the aim of developing a community view of challenges, working solutions and sustainability through the fostering o

  Feature - Behind the scenes with Mission Control: project managing massive grid projects Some of the faces that keep grid projects rolling ahead.Images courtesy of Open Science Grid and EGEEBehind every megabyte there is a mega-bit of teamwork.And behind every data delivery there is a project deliverable. Who coordinates these distributed computing projects, with their distributed partners and distributed priorities? iSGTW heads to Mission Control to find out. Chander Sehgal – Project Associate for Open Science Grid Anna Cook – Project Administration for Enabling Grids for E-sciencE   Chander Sehgal: “We have a shared mission, and that’s where the power of this collaboration comes from.”Images courtesy of Open Science Grid  Chander Sehgal – Open Science GridWhat is your role with OSG? I joined Open Science Grid in January 2007 and handle OSG’s project and budget management. We’re a medium-sized project employing several dozen people, and there are

Announcement - High Performance Computing and Grids, 30 June to 4 July 2008, Centraro, Italy The High Performance Computing and Grids workshop will discuss developments in HPC technologies and contribute to assessing the main aspects of grids, with special emphasis on solutions to grid computing deployment.Image courtesy of High Performance Computing and Grids The next High Performance Computing and Grids workshop will be held from 30 June to 4 July 2008 in Centraro, on the coast of southern Italy.The workshop will discuss developments in HPC technologies and contribute to assessing the main aspects of grids, with special emphasis on solutions to grid computing deployment.Topics will cover• Advanced Technologies for Petaflops Computing• Emerging Computer Architectures and Their Performance• Programming Models• Parallel Languages• Parallel Software Tools and Environments• Distributed Systems and Algorithms• Parallel Multimedia Computing Technologies• Innovative Applications in Science and In

  Opinion - The rise of parallelism (and other computing challenges) The ILLIAC IV supercomputer led its field in 1966 as a parallel computing machine. This computer was only ever quarter finished, but took eleven years to build at nearly four times the original estimated cost.Image courtesy of Steve Jurvetson In the past, parallelism was just one solution among the many available to manufacturers wanting to propose computer architectures with attractive peak performances. Today, parallelism is no longer an “option”: it is now necessary for manufacturers to make large use of parallelism in order to propose attractive solutions.Parallelism is no longer devoted purely to the field of high performance or high speed computing. As a consequence, it is almost everywhere: parallelism is used in PCs, cellular phones and much more. The extensive use of parallelism has transformed “More than Moore” into reality, contributing to the sustained amazement of modern users of computer devices.The double-edges of the pa

  Feature - Achieving interoperability between Shibboleth and gLite The Short Lived Credential Service allows users to access the grid with easy-to-use credentials.Image copyright Marcel Reich Grid security has long relied on public key infrastructure (PKI) technology, yet in recent years other security models have become widespread, most notably the concept of federated identity. Can these models achieve interoperability? Grid users are traditionally authenticated using X.509 certificates, which are issued by accredited Certification Authorities and are valid for one year. When interacting with grid services, these users typically present a short-lived proxy certificate, derived from this longer-lived X.509 certificate. In an environment based on federated identity, users identify themselves differently. This newer process comprises two clearly decoupled steps: authentication, which takes place at an Identity Provider; and authorization, which occurs at the Service Provider. Each Service Provider is free to decide whether to

  Announcement - Registration open: 3rd EGEE User Forum, 11-14 February, France The Enabling Grids for EsciencE (EGEE) grid infrastructure is now operated by more than 90 partners spanning 45 countries. Image courtesy of EGEE Registration is now open for the 3rd EGEE User Forum, to be held in Clermont-Ferrand, France on 11-14 February 2008. Call for abstractsSubmitted abstracts should follow online guidelines and be submitted online. The deadline for abstract submission is 3 December 2007.Abstracts should address one of three general themes:scientific results produced with the help of grid technology, with emphasis on how grid technology enhanced the result,functional requirements for application porting and deployment, existing or prospective grid services, explaining the purpose, typical use cases and interactions with other grid services.Tutorials and TrainingsThose interested in organizing a tutorial or meeting in conjunction with the User Forum, should contact the Program and Local Organization Committee chairs. Tutor

Link of the week - Online learning: the International Winter School on Grid Computing The online International Winter School on Grid Computing requires 80 hours of commitment and is open to up to 30 participants. Applications are open now. This image comes from the summer school equivalent.Image courtesy of ICEAGE Can’t make it to the 2008 ICEAGE International Summer School on Grid Computing in Hungary in July? Why not study online instead? Enrolling in the summer school’s winter incarnation: the online International Winter School on Grid Computing, which kicks off 6 February 2008 and runs until 5 March. The International Summer Schools on Grid Computing—run by the ICEAGE project—were established in 2003 and have proven to be a great success, both for teaching staff and students. Introducing numerous grid technologies through lectures and practical exercises, the summer schools are a unique gathering place for globally recognised grid computing figures from all over the world. “[This sum

Announcement - 4th BELIEF brainstorming session: 26-27 November, Edinburgh, UK BELIEF, or Bringing Europe's eLectronic Infrastructures to Explanding Frontiers, will hold an invitation-only brainstorming session in Edinburgh this month. Expressions of interest in attending are now open.Image courtesy of Peter Tuffy, University of Edinburgh Persons interested in recieving an invitation to the fourth BELIEF Brainstorming event on e-Education and new e-Infrastructures Communities can now register their interest. The event will take place in Edinburgh, UK, from 26-27 November 2007 at the National E-Science Centre, in collaboration with High Throughput Computing Week. The BELIEF event will take advantage of its skilled and expert audience to examine e-education and how new community members can benefit from its use through developed infrastructures. The event will also highlight the diversity that einfrastructures can bring to e-education by showcasing practical examples. This outreach event, which looks to tap into re

  Images of the week - Scenes from SC07 Pumping at the pinnacle of energy, innovation and computing power, SC07 is serving up the latest and greatest in IT to a record crowd this week in Reno, Nevada.Image courtesy of Douglas Mansell The Stony Brook University team are all smiles just prior to beginning their 44-hour race against the clock and five other undergraduate teams as part of the Cluster Challenge.Image courtesy of Douglas Mansell The Enabling Grids for E-sciencE stand showcases the achievements of EGEE, a project which brings together partners from 45 countries to create a grid strongly focused on interoperability and accessibility.Image courtesy of Jerry Newton Photography The Fermilab team, members of Open Science Grid, are demonstrating high bandwidth Tier-1 to Tier-2 LHC data transmission. The OSG duck can be found on OSG member stands throughout the exhibition.Image courtesy of John Urish Projects including AstroGrid, OMII, National Grid Service, NaCTeM, the London e-Science Centre and GridPP are highl

  Opinion - Celebrating one year of International Science Grid This Week iSGTW celebrates one year of reporting on grid computing initiatives across the globe. In the last six months, visits to the iSGTW Web site have increased almost six-fold and are continuing to rise. Images courtesy of iSGTWThis issue, International Science Grid This Week celebrates its first anniversary. Since our launch last year, interest in grids, cyberinfrastructure and distributed computing has skyrocketed. As one indicator, visits to the iSGTW.org site have increased almost six-fold over the last six months. The number of scientists using grid computing is also increasing, as is the level of resources now available to them.In the last year, the number of jobs run on the UK’s GridPP has more than doubled to approach one million jobs during October 2007. Altogether, in the last twelve months GridPP computers have run the equivalent of 26 million normalized CPU hours.The Open Science Grid e-infrastructure is now averaging 80,000 jobs a day&md

  Announcement - Royal request for time to kick-start Mediterranean e-infrastructures HRH Princess of Jordan Sumaya Bint Al Hassan (seated, front right) joined other VIP speakers and an invited audience at the EUMED Event in Brussels, 23-24 October.Image courtesy of TERENA News HRH Princess of Jordan Sumaya Bint Al Hassan added her voice to calls for a continuation of European funding support for vital Mediterranean e-infrastructures, during last month’s EUMED Event. The event, held in Brussels 23-24 October, brought together VIP speakers and an invited audience from around Europe and the Mediterranean region. Almost 90 politicians, network operators, users, civil servants, and managers of national research and education networks came from more than 15 countries to discuss collaborations in e-infrastructures and networking for research and education. Sustainability was the recurring concern of the event, with many questions about long-term support for projects that have been established across the Mediterranean region in

  Feature - “CIC-On-Duty”: smooth operations behind the scenes Hélène Cordier presents at the Regional Operations Center Managers’ Meeting during EGEE ’07, speaking on developments in “CIC on Duty” operations.Image courtesy of Toth Csilla  As a grid user, you want to send jobs to your grid, and you want results back. Hélène Cordier is one of the hidden coordinators working behind-the-scenes to ensure this happens as smoothly and as often as possible.An integral part of operations in the Enabling Grids for E-sciencE project, Cordier is deputy of the French Regional Operations Center and also deals with French operations for the Large Hadron Collider Computing Grid. “CIC-On-Duty” Cordier has been the driving force behind “CIC-On-Duty,” where CIC stands for Core Infrastructure Center. Dubbed COD, Cordier’s scheme helps ensure smooth operation of the EGEE grid. All EGEE federations contribute one COD team of two to three people.&