EuroGrid to focus on HPC-GRID activitation for distributed scientific applications and basic technologies

The principal objective of this project constitutes the installation of a grid for experimental as well as productive applications, which is able to deliver to its scientific users a secure, simple, and transparent access to a variety of advanced computing resources at a European level, and to efficiently contribute to the progress of computational science in Europe.

The national centres which take part in the project are FRZ in Jülich, Germany; CSAR in Manchester, The United Kingdom; IDRIS in Orsay, France; CSCS in Manno, Switzerland; ICM in Warchaw, Poland; and Parallab in Bergen, Norway. The other partners are the research centre of EADS in Toulouse, the meteorological centre DWD, and the Pallas company in Germany. Other high-tech companies are sub-contractors of Pallas.

The project was started in November 2000 and is based on three essential action lines, as Mr. Alessandrini explained. The first consists in the establishment of a computational grid, called HPC-GRID, which results from the integration of the high-performance computing environments in the national centres. The implementation of the HPC-GRID is accomplished through algorithmic technologies supplied by the German project UNICORE, which stands for Unified access to Computing Resources. At present, this infrastructure allows to execute applications at multiple sites. The implementation and testing of the HPC-GRID are organised by IDRIS.

The second line of action constitutes the development of distributed scientific applications, and of portals and interfaces for the applications in the domains of chemistry; structural biology, in particular the BioGrid activity set up by ICM; weather forecasting, activated by DWD in the MétéoGrid initiative; computer-aided design in the CAO-Grid piloted by EADS; etc.

The development of basic technologies forms the third action line in activities guided by Manchester and Pallas. These are focused in particular to the domains of resource localisation and allocation on the grid as well as performant and secure data transmission.

In this context, IDRIS is concentrating in France on the development and the deployment of scientific applications to execute complex simulations with multiple and multi-physical components which require a heterogeneous environment of several supercomputers to be successful, according to the IDRIS manager. A great number of code coupling projects is now running in close partnership with research groups in France in a wide range of scientific areas including turbulence science, astrophysics, regional climatology, combustion, and protein folding. Some of them are already operational and have been deployed on the HPC-GRID.

In order to develop distributed scientific applications, IDRIS has adopted a strategy based on the use of technologies for distributed objects which form the standard for the next-generation applications on the Internet. One of the major results in the first year of EuroGrid implementation has been the demonstration of interoperability, which is meant by the harmonious and peaceful co-existence of these technologies with UNICORE. This achievement, obtained at IDRIS, broadens the reach and interest of UNICORE and allows the deployment on the HPC-GRID of scientific applications developed in France.

Mr. Alessandrini ended with an important initiative developed by several partners, among which is IDRIS. This activity constitutes the use of grid technologies to combine scientific applications with services that enable to contribute to the efficiency and productivity of the end-user. This type of technologies in development "open" on the Internet environments that are strictly protected by national high-performance computing centres. Mr. Alessandrini promised that concrete examples will follow at the time when the project will be presented.