Intro to grid computing Cristy Burne GridTalk Queen Mary University of London

1.What is grid computing? 2.What can grid computing do? 3.What’s it already doing in physics? Things to talk about... 4.Why not supercomputing? 5.Questions

What is grid computing? 1.Getting a bunch of ordinary computers 2.Joining that bunch to someone else’s bunch (and someone else’s bunch...) 3.Sharing access to those computers 4.Doing cool stuff

The WISDOM project (=Wide In Silico Docking on Malaria)

Plasmodium falciparum “plasmepsin”: key to a cure?

One in a million? Searching for a perfect match Traditional methods? Way too slow

Computer speed dating  1,000,000 molecules  41,000,000 “dockings”  30 “maybe” molecules All 30 “maybes” inhibited the malaria protein in the lab The next step: can the molecules inhibit the living malaria parasite? – Just six weeks of simulations –Equivalent to 80 CPU- years!!

What’s grid computing got to do with physics?

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC)

ALICE: just one of the four

What is grid computing?

Steve LloydThe Large Hadron Collider The LHC Data Challenge

Frédéric Hemmer, CERN, IT Department Selectivity: 1 in …Like looking for one person in a thousand world populations …or searching for a needle in 20 million haystacks!

Mont Blanc (4.8 km) Boeing 747 (10.7 km) 1 year of LHC data (20 km)

22,000,000,000,000 sheets of paper

1,700,000 DVDs (485 years of non-stop watching)

CERN’s computer centre

GridPP Lancaster University University Of Liverpool University Of Manchester University Of Sheffield University Of Birmingham University Of Bristol University Of Cambridge University Of Oxford Rutherford Appleton Laboratory Warwick University University of Sussex Durham University University Of Edinburgh University Of Glasgow Brunel University Imperial College London Queen Mary, University of London Royal Holloway, University of London University College London Swansea University

Steve LloydThe Large Hadron Collider Sir Alan Sugar opening the Queen Mary e-Science Cluster, May 2007 QMUL 440 PCs 1,440 CPUs 197 TB Disk

Enabling Grids for E- sciencE 52 countries 259 sites 72,000 CPUs, available 24/7

Grid computing=ordinary computers –cheap –everyone has them

Supercomputing? Meet “Roadrunner” –Owned by DOE –Have to fly to US £83,00 0,000

Ten things I like about grid computing Cheaper than supercomputing 2.More flexible than supercomputing 3.Gives poorer countries the chance participate in global science 4.Fights “Brain Drain” 5.Turbo-powers amazing scientific research 6.Can also use it for business, humanities, entertainment... 7.Makes efficient use of computers, 24/7 8.Encourages sharing and cooperation 9.Brings countries together 10.Pays my wages

Frédéric Hemmer, CERN, IT Department afe.org cern.ch Want more on grid computing?

Grids for Kids – January 2008 So what’s the difference? The Internet, the Web and the Grid? 1.The Internet links millions of computers around the world into a massive computer network (=roads). 2.The World Wide Web uses the Internet to share information (=using delivery van to deliver pizza). 3.The Grid uses the Internet to share computer power and storage capacity (=lending your pizza van to someone else). But… »the Grid» does not exist!! Instead, there are many different grids

Middleware: the bit that makes it work