Content about Links-Statistics-Acronyms

Statistic of the Week - 318 Stock image from sxc.huFor those new to grid computing, or those who wonder what happened to all the real words, the Enabling Grids for E-sciencE glossary can provide a ready guide to the acronyms and keywords that pop up in almost every grid-related sentence. The glossary defines 318 acronyms. The EGEE project, now in its fourth year, was reviewed by an independent panel nominated by the European Commission at CERN in Switzerland last week. Presumably the reviewers didn’t have too much of a problem sorting their GUIs from their GILDAs: their preliminary comments were very positive. “Anyone involved in EGEE had very high expectations, and we haven’t been disappointed,” said one of the reviewers. “Overall we assessed the project as performing excellently.”Can’t find your personal favorite in the EGEE Glossary? Send an e-mail to [email protected] and do your bit to help demystify grids.. 

Link of the Week - Grid Technology Training at Georgetown University A class in April 2007 at Georgetown University’s Advanced Research Computing center introducing Beowulf design, planning, building and administration.Image courtesy of Arnie Miles The Georgetown University Advanced Research Computing division and the Center for Continuing Education have created a certification program for computer systems administrators wanting to advance in the fields of high performance and high throughput computing. The Advanced Research Computing division is also offering training in parallel and distributed programming. This will give students a full spectrum of high performance and high throughput computational training. These programs are designed to help workers develop the skills necessary to compete in this growing field. Training materials from these classes is available in a free online wiki. “The goal behind these programs is to build a work force,” says Arnie Miles, one of the instructors. “For t

Acronym of the Week - AtlanTICC An example of climate modeling that was carried out using distributed computing, facilitated by the Lambda Rail. Image courtesy of AtlanTICC AllianceA tripartite alliance between scientific research centers in the United Kingdom and United States, the AtlanTICC Alliance seeks to develop and exploit the results of research and training at its three partner institutions: Imperial College London, UK; Georgia Institute of Technology, U.S.; and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. One of their research themes, Enabling Technologies, includes research in grid technology and seeks to “Create the technological structure for tomorrow’s leaders in science and technology.”Last month Lambda Rail, the high speed network connection between all three AtlanTICC Alliance institutions, became fully operational. To learn more visit the AtlantTICC Alliance Web site.

Link of the Week - Web Cams in the ATLAS Cavern The ATLAS Collaboration has installed Web cams in their cavern so you can see what is going on. Image courtesy of ATLASEvery half hour during a workday the ATLAS cavern Web cams snap a picture of the ongoing ATLAS detector installation. Marzio Nessi, an ATLAS collaborator, proposed the Web cams in 2003 as installation was about to begin in the cavern. The pictures visually record the process and help interested people, both in the collaboration and outside, remain informed. “We’re amazed at how much interest there has been from the outside,” says Nessi. “Far beyond 100,000 people have logged in to view the Web cams.”ATLAS is one of the particle physics experiments at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider.

Statistic of the Week - 4.3 Million A simulation of the drug binding to a protein from the malaria parasite. Image Credit Vinod KASAM, CNRS/IN2P3Number of potential malarial medicines tested in two and a half months by the second phase of the WISDOM initiative. WISDOM analyzed possible docking arrangements between drug compounds and target proteins of the malaria parasite, with the hope of accelerating the search for anti-malarial drugs.  The WISDOM initiative, carried out as an international cooperative project, completed January 31. Several international calculation grids made WISDOM possible, including EGEE, AuverGrid, EELA, EUMedGrid, EUChinaGrid, TWGrid, BioinfoGrid and Embrace.To learn more click here.

Link of the Week - New to Grid Computing? As part of their resources for developers, IBM offers an introduction to grid computing. On their page “New to grid computing” they address questions like “What is grid computing?” “Why is it important?” and “Can I build a grid today?” Visit the Web site to learn more.  

Statistic of the Week: 100 The German e-Science Initiative, founded by the German Ministry for Research and Education, is funding over 100 German research organizations with 100 Million Euros over the next five years as part of the D-Grid initiative. The initiative’s goal is to design, build and operate grids for the German scientific community. To learn more click here.  

Acronym of the Week: ISSeG The Integrated Site Security for Grids project complements grid computer security by creating and disseminating practical site security recommendations. Grid security concerns middleware, authentication, authorisation and operation across multiple administrative domains. Site security concerns site-wide technical, administrative and educational security measures. The project provides advice on integrated site security to ensure that a site’s policies, rules, awareness and training all evolve in step with technological or administrative developments. The ISSeG project is co-funded by the European Commission, led by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland, and includes Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe in Germany and the Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils based in the United Kingdom.- Kate Bradshaw, ISSeG  

Acronym of the Week: GrEnaDE

GrEnaDE, which stands for Grid-Enabled Desktop Environments, is a project that aims to accelerate the rollout of computational grids by addressing the issues of accessibility and visibility directly, through tight integration of grid functionality within the user's desktop. GrEnaDE builds on existing grid and commodity technologies to provide small but tangible improvements to usersÂ’ desktop environments. GrEnaDE is a project of the Manchester Research Centre for Computational Science at the UK's University of Manchester.

Statistic of the Week: $0.10

The amount charged per computing hour by AmazonÂ’s computing-on-demand service. One gigabyte of data storage per month costs $0.15. AmazonÂ’s service, and others like it, may revolutionize the way scientists use computing power.

Source: “Amazon puts network power online” at [email protected].