HLRS Stuttgart joins in trans-atlantic metacomputing

Stuttgart, 15 November 97 An international team of computer experts combined the capacity of machines at three large supercomputer centers that exceeded three Tflop/s. The meta-computing effort used for the simulations linked 3 of the top 10 largest supercomputers in the world. Involved were HLRS, the High-Performance Computing-Center at the University of Stuttgart, Germany, Sandia National Laboratories, SNL, Albuquerque, NM, Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, Pittsburgh, PA. They demonstrated a trans-Atlantic meta-computing and meta-visualization environment. The demonstration is a component of this official G7 Information Society pilot programme.

This project is the first to use trans-Atlantic, high-speed ATM communication to allow researchers tocollaboratively visualize scientific results.

In 1995, the Information Society of the G7 trading partners instituted a research program aimed at developing the computing systems able to solve problems of a size and importance that are beyond the capability of any single nation. These research efforts involve the skillful integration of both computing resources and the know-how of experts from around the world.

Scientists in San Jose and in Stuttgart were able to jointly study a computational model of a comet impacting just off Long Island, New York. The scientists watched the results of a one-kilometer-diameter comet (weighing about a billion tons) traveling 60 kilometers per second and entering the Earth's atmosphere at about 45 degree.

The entry of the comet into the atmosphere was simulated by URANUS, a code developed at the Institute for Space-Systems (IRS) at the University of Stuttgart. The simulation, performed by SNL, showed the impact blasting material into the stratosphere, and the tremendous tidal wave, which resulted.

This scientific collaboration was enabled by a virtual reality environment that let researchers in Germany interact with the scientific model as though they, too, were at the Supercomputing show. For that, COVISE, a collaborative visualization environment developed at the University of Stuttgart, was coupled with eigen/VR, a virtual reality renderer developed by SNL for the Department of Energy Office of Mathematics, Information and Computer Science.

At this year's SC'97 show, the G7 researchers demonstrated more advanced technology with newly assembled networks, which enabled a useful system with only 75 msec latency (20 msec represents the unavoidable latency due to the speed of light) using commercial and research ATM technology.

Instrumental in providing the networking connections to enable this demonstration were the Rechenzentrum Universität Stuttgart, and Deutsche Telekom AG, Germany, Teleglobe, and CARNARIE INC/NTN, Canada, and the National Science Foundation, and Energy Sciences Network, US.

G7 information society
Global companies are learning to thrive using networked, world-wide information systems. For example, it is becoming common for a design team finishing their day's work to hand-off the continuing, round-the-clock design to another design team further around the world. However, even more advanced tools would be helpful to extend the collaborations that are necessary to address global problems extending beyond the border of any single country. Understanding environmental issues including ozone depletion, the possibility of global warming, or other global-scale disasters will require the spirit of international cooperation.

At the Ministerial Conference on the Information Society held in Brussels in February, 1995, G7 Ministers agreed to eight core principles to guide the evolution of the global information society. Eleven official pilot projects were endorsed to promote joint R&D, demonstrate pre-commercial trials, and to advanced high-speed services and applications.

This Canadian/USA/German project, under the Global Interoperability for Broadband Networks, tackled the hardest problems of a trans-Atlantic high speed link.

For more information check in at the HLRS web site:

Ad Emmen