transfer data at world record pace
:: developing grid concept
Physicists recently set a world record for high-speed disk-to-disk transfer of research
data. The rates achieved were equivalent to transferring all the data from a full-length DVD
movie from one part of the world to another in less than 60 seconds, or a full compact disk in
less than eight seconds. Within three hours, physicists successfully moved one terabyte of research
data--equivalent to roughly 1,500 CDs from TRIUMF, the particle physics lab in Vancouver, to
CERN, the international particle physics lab in Geneva.
"We are now coming to grips with the practical problems of establishing a world-wide computational
grid to process the unprecedented amounts of data that will be generated by the ATLAS experiment
when it begins to operate in 2007," said James Pinfold, who speaks for ATLAS Canada, the
Canadian contingent of an international collaboration of 2,000 physicists. The ATLAS experiment
will employ the world's highest-energy collider (the LHC) to explore the fundamental nature of
matter and the basic forces which shape our universe. "The only way to deal with such unprecedented
amounts of data is to utilize a new class of computing infrastructure--the GRID. The GRID is
the World Wide Web of the 21st century," said Pinfold. The GRID will eventually link together
computers, supercomputers and storage centers across the globe to create a world computer that
makes it possible for the increasingly large and international modern scientific collaborations
to share resources on a mammoth scale. This allows globally distributed groups to work together
in ways that were previously impossible. The GRID "world computer" must have lightning
fast and reliable communication of information between its nodes. >from *University
of Alberta physicist helps transfer data at world record pace*, November 13, 2002
related context
> indiana virtual machine
room: tera-scale supercomputer grid. june 13, 2002
> mmg: massively-multiplayer
games platform. may 10, 2002
> science grid deployement:
emerging model of computing. april 3, 2002
> end of lep accelerator
at cern: large electron positron collider. december, 2000
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