Index  | Recent Threads  | Unanswered Threads  | Who's Active  | Guidelines  | Search
 

Quick Go ยป
No member browsing this thread
Thread Status: Active
Total posts in this thread: 7
[ Jump to Last Post ]
Post new Thread
Author
Previous Thread This topic has been viewed 885 times and has 6 replies Next Thread
Former Member
Cruncher
Joined: May 22, 2018
Post Count: 0
Status: Offline
Reply to this Post  Reply with Quote 
Supercomputers unite

Supercomputers unite
IBM's Austin office creates worldwide network of computers aimed at solving complex problems
Elizabeth Millard - Contributing Writer

Austin has a reputation for its growth, artistic drive and thriving intellectual community. But could it also become an epicenter of scientific research, untangling knotty problems that labs typically can't solve?
If the organizers of the World Community Grid have their way, an Austin data center could be instrumental in tackling some of the toughest questions for health, environmental and meteorological researchers.
Launched by IBM's Austin office in late December, the WCG uses software developed by Austin-based United Devices Inc. to connect computers across the world, harnessing their computing power as a massive 'supercomputer" that can crunch numbers at blinding speed.
Currently, the grid is working on a project involving human proteins, with a focus on how diseases prevent proteins from maintaining healthy cells.
As that's progressing, IBM is actively seeking more projects in multiple disciplines, hoping to change the arena of scientific research, one connection at a time.
The genesis of the WCG came a few years ago, when IBM was asked to help narrow down potential drug candidates in a smallpox study. The company was so pleased with the level of enthusiasm shown by employees and volunteers, and the feeling of contributing to the greater scientific good, that it decided to establish a grid that could be used on a permanent basis, says Viktors Berstis, WCG technical lead and IBM master inventor.
Many grid projects are temporary endeavors, bringing together researchers and volunteered computer cycles for a brief time while a particular study is done.
The majority of volunteers are individuals who sign up to "donate" their home or company PC power -- just giving the grid the idle time that all computers have when not in use.
But IBM felt that putting together an established, ongoing grid project could have a powerful impact on for the research community and develop a more extensive volunteer network.
"It takes a lot of effort to recruit members, so it's a shame when the study is done and that effort can't be extended for something more long-term," Berstis says. "With a grid that will remain in place, it will allow for larger, more complicated research to be tackled, and for much more difficult problems to be handled."
To make sure the worldwide donated computer time would be routed properly, IBM chose Austin's United Devices to provide the software needed to create a comprehensive, distributed computing environment.
The IBM team's location, and the choice of United Devices, gave the project a true Austin feel, says Mary Bass, United Devices director of marketing.
"The grid has very much grown out of Austin," she says. "It's a nice balance, because here's this local initiative, and yet our volunteers are around the world, from 190 countries. We're operating this massive project out of a little Austin data center, and that's pretty amazing."
With its Austin-based team in place, software at the ready and volunteers signed up, all the project needed was some research to tackle.
Surprisingly, finding it was a difficult task.
"Researchers are used to thinking about how to make their studies smaller, to be doable with the resources they have," Berstis says. "We had to tell them to revisit their approaches, to think as big as they could, completely outside of the box."
The first to propose a project far outside the realm of its computational abilities was the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle.
It designed the Human Proteome Folding Project, which takes data from the draft sequence of the human genome that's related to proteins in an attempt to map the roles of individual proteins.
Researchers believe that if the biological functions of individual proteins can be identified, the information could be used to develop cures for diseases like cancer, HIV/AIDS and malaria.
Volunteers can even "watch" the research unfold, with a screen saver showing the molecule that their computers are working on.
"This is one of the first major, really useful research projects to come out of the human genome sequencing," Bass says. "To have the genome mapped is amazing, but to be able to take that information and put it to practical use is the larger goal, and that's what the WCG is doing."
If the Institute had tried to do all the necessary computations on its own supercomputer, the research would have taken about 100 years, Berstis says.
With the WCG, it will take approximately a year.
As the proteome project continues, Berstis and others are keen on finding more projects that can use the grid's power.
Because researchers in the medical field have already been using grid computing with supercomputers, they tend to be more prepared to expand the range of their projects, so Berstis anticipates a number of health and medical-related studies in the near future.
But he hopes to tap into the grid for a much wider breadth of studies, in a wide variety of scientific disciplines.
"We're open to almost any kind of project," he says. "As long as it helps humanity or the world in some way."
The WCG could be used for climate prediction or earthquake studies, he notes, which means it could help foresee the next major tsunami.
The grid could also be employed to study how pollutants affect the environment, and what kind of diseases crop up as a result.
Currently, the WCG is putting an advisory board together to pursue projects more aggressively and inspire researchers to think beyond previous limitations.
The effect could be global change, springing from Austin.
"To say this is exciting is something of an understatement," Berstis says.
[Jul 19, 2005 9:08:25 PM]   Link   Report threatening or abusive post: please login first  Go to top 
Former Member
Cruncher
Joined: May 22, 2018
Post Count: 0
Status: Offline
Reply to this Post  Reply with Quote 
Re: Supercomputers unite

Linky?
[Jul 19, 2005 9:15:09 PM]   Link   Report threatening or abusive post: please login first  Go to top 
Former Member
Cruncher
Joined: May 22, 2018
Post Count: 0
Status: Offline
Reply to this Post  Reply with Quote 
Re: Supercomputers unite

Hmm, this looks suspiciously like a little marketing for WCG shock

What on earth are IBM thinking of tongue
[Jul 19, 2005 9:35:15 PM]   Link   Report threatening or abusive post: please login first  Go to top 
Former Member
Cruncher
Joined: May 22, 2018
Post Count: 0
Status: Offline
Reply to this Post  Reply with Quote 
Re: Supercomputers unite

Well it sounds good to me smile
[Jul 20, 2005 12:40:45 AM]   Link   Report threatening or abusive post: please login first  Go to top 
Former Member
Cruncher
Joined: May 22, 2018
Post Count: 0
Status: Offline
Reply to this Post  Reply with Quote 
Re: Supercomputers unite

So everything on the server side has been in Austin, Texas all this time?
[Jul 21, 2005 12:14:21 PM]   Link   Report threatening or abusive post: please login first  Go to top 
Former Member
Cruncher
Joined: May 22, 2018
Post Count: 0
Status: Offline
Reply to this Post  Reply with Quote 
Re: Supercomputers unite

Here is the URL for the article in the Austin Business Journal: http://austin.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2005/07/18/focus1.html
[Jul 21, 2005 1:33:45 PM]   Link   Report threatening or abusive post: please login first  Go to top 
Former Member
Cruncher
Joined: May 22, 2018
Post Count: 0
Status: Offline
Reply to this Post  Reply with Quote 
Re: Supercomputers unite

Here is the URL for the article in the Austin Business Journal: http://austin.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2005/07/18/focus1.html


Thank you
smile
[Jul 21, 2005 1:35:52 PM]   Link   Report threatening or abusive post: please login first  Go to top 
[ Jump to Last Post ]
Post new Thread