C3.ca in Atlantic Canada

Virendra Bhavsar

Director, Advanced Computational Research Laboratory (ACRL)

Faculty of Computer ScienceUniversity of New Brunswick

Fredericton, NBBhavsar@unb.ca

Outline

» Personal view of C3.ca

» Resource providers in Atlantic Canada

» ACRL• Hardware & software• Users• Expertise

» Other Atlantic RPs: MUN, St. Mary’s, Dalhousie

» Using C3.ca resources: an example

C3.ca: a personal view

»What is C3.ca about?•Sharing resources•Sharing expertise

»How to promote use of High Performance Computing (HPC)?•Make access easier

• Better interfaces• GRID

•Training of HPC application developers

Resource Providers in Atlantic Canada

ACRL Workshops

»High Performance Parallel Computing - Getting Started on ACRL's IBM SP, a half-day workshop, was given by Dr. Eric Aubanel by Dr. Virendra Bhavsar in December, January and July

»Feb. 2001: Dr. Eric Myra (IBM USA) gave a three-day parallel programming workshop

»Workshops at MACI and HPCS2001

»First Atlantic Canada High Performance Computing Consortium (AC3) Meeting held Feb. 24 2001

»MUN, UNB, UPEI, StFX agreed to create AC3 to coordinate effective use of Atlantic Canada’s HPC systems•Dalhousie & others have joined

»www.cs.unb.ca/acrl/ac3/ac3.html

»Atlantic Grid proposal to AIF

»www.cs.unb.ca/acrl/ac3/ac3.html

The AC3 GRID

An investment in the future of Atlantic Canadian R&D Infrastructure

Dr. Virendra C. Bhavsar

UNB, Fredericton

bhavsar@unb.ca

What is a GRID System

» Cooperative network of shared resources• Scaleable wide area network that supports resource

sharing and distribution• Composed of geographically distributed, autonomous

resource providers

» Includes computers, network links, human resources and databases• Exploits the heterogeneous characteristics of the

participating resource providers• Generalized data handling, computing and client support

system

» Supports the development of advanced R&D applications in Science, Engineering and Technology Development, Finance and the Arts.

GRID Applications

» Large scale and resource intensive frontier applications• R&D applications that go beyond current technological

capabilities• Technology development applications in multi-media,

finance, production arts, hard sciences and engineering.

• Advanced telecommunications protocol and services development

» Require specialized facilities and networks• Need for high bandwidth, high priority access to

bandwidth• Need for access to HPC sites• Need for access to more than one of a set of

heterogeneous, geographically distributed resources• Have large computational or data requirements• Need high performance visualization facilities at remote

locations.

Some Application Areas

» Geo-Data processing in Meteorology, Remote Sensing, Oceanography, Space Science.

» Computational Chemistry, Biology, Medical Science and Services

» Simulation Modeling for Transportation,Telecommunications and Policy Analysis

» Financial modeling

» Multi-media applications such as embedded video, digital video servers and video conferencing.

AC3 Grid

» Peer network of providers and users• Resource providers are autonomous installations located

at Atlantic Canadian universities

» Distributed access to all facilities and support resources of the GRID• Any client with an Internet connection can access • Uniform WEB based user interface• Common support software available to all clients

» Secure access to resources and data• Single point of entry to GRID services

» GRID wide monitoring of resource consumption and distribution• GRID wide scheduling and management of shared

resources

AC3 Grid

» Shared access to heterogeneous facilities• Standard user interface to GRID resources

» Shared training and support resources• Standard training tools and resource information

databases

» Common development and support tools• GRID application development and debugging

environments

» Resource brokering amongst facilities• Easy discovery of available GRID resources

» Integration with other GRID systems either Regional or

International

AC3 GRID Road Map

» Strategic Plan

» Resource and Technology Inventory

» Interim GRID deployment using GLOBUS and Legion

» Core Software Base

» Administrative Arrangements

» Prototype Demonstration

» Initial Deployment

» Resource Discovery Mechanisms

» Advanced Feature Deployment

Concluding Message

»Canadian HPC resources and expertise are growing and are readily available

»Visit www.c3.ca for details

HPCS 2002

»www.umoncton.ca/hpcs2002

»Deadline for submissions: Dec. 14

»All aspects of HPC:• Parallel

Architectures and Networking

• Software Systems • Parallel Algorithms • Applications