Enterasys Networks supports CERN in building data-intensive computing grid for multi-billion dollar particle acceleratorGeneva 24 September 2001 Enterasys Networks Inc. will participate in CERN's powerful new LHC Computing Grid. Led by CERN, the project is an international collaborative effort designed to create a new giant data-intensive computing environment. The Grid will handle vast amounts of data generated from experiments at its forthcoming multi-billion dollar particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The accelerator is to be commissioned in 2005 and will be the most powerful device of its kind ever built.
As CERN's long-standing strategic Layer-3 switch vendor, Enterasys has confirmed its sponsorship and support of CERN's contribution towards developing the LHC Computing Grid. This effort will be channelled through the CERN openlab for DataGrid applications, which will focus on continued research of advanced technologies and open solutions for the creation of the large information-processing DataGrid. Enterasys' participation includes CERN's evaluation of its sophisticated 10-Gigabit Ethernet technology, including its Matrix E1 Optical Access Switch (OAS), for the interconnection and delivery of large volumes of data between tens of thousands of processors and storage devices that will form the LHC Computing Grid. Enterasys has also agreed to
additional supporting activities, including engineering resource assistance and product and technology forums, equivalent to a $1.5 million investment.
Nearly ten thousand scientists from more than 50 countries worldwide will use the DataGrid infrastructure, forming virtual communities to analyse and research information received from the mighty LHC accelerator and its detectors. Once in operation, the LHC Computing Grid will handle more than 10 million Gigabytes of data per year for a decade, with LAN throughput rates of a terabit per second and a WAN capacity of dozens of gigabits per second. The LHC accelerator itself
consists of a 17-mile ring of superconducting magnets located in a tunnel 400 feet underground below Geneva. It also encompasses four giant detectors, which will observe trillions of particle collisions.
CERN was founded in 1954 and is directly supported by 20 European Member States. The laboratory is open to global collaboration and provides state-of-the-art facilities that are regularly used by half of the world's particle physicists. The organisation designs and builds intricate accelerators, which are used to accelerate tiny particles to a fraction under the speed of light, whose collisions are made visible by sophisticated detectors built by worldwide collaborations. Research related to CERN experiments has resulted in an array of practical benefits ranging from medical imaging to the World Wide Web. The LHC will be the most advanced accelerator technology ever deployed, allowing scientists to investigate the structure of matter and recreate conditions
prevailing in the early universe.
Enterasys' 10-Gigabit strategy is based on the concept of UTOPIA (Unlocking the Optical Internet Application) and is an ideal foundation for Grid computing. UTOPIA is reached when the capacity of the Local Area Network (LAN), Wide Area Network (WAN) and Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) achieve a level that provides a zero latency experience between people, applications and content, regardless of location.
A member of the Gigabit Ethernet Alliance (10 GEA), Enterasys was the first in the industry to announce a strategy for the delivery of 10-Gigabit Ethernet. The Matrix E1, a high-speed aggregation device, is Enterasys' first 10-Gigabit Ethernet product. It provides line-rate performance and a modular 10-Gigabit uplink with numerous transport options for the LAN and MAN. Delivery of 10-Gigabit capabilities will follow in Enterasys' MatrixTM switching platform and its
X-PeditionTM switch-router line.
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