TeraGrid
Ian Foster, PIs
Goals: Sponsored by the National Science Foundation Office of Cyberinfrastructure, the TeraGrid integrates a widely distributed set of high-capability computational, data management, and visualization resources as a coherent work environment through advanced software, services, and high-bandwidth optical networks. TeraGrid is coordinated through the Grid Infrastructure Group (GIG) at the University of Chicago, working in partnership with the Resource Provider sites: Indiana University, Louisiana Optical Network Initiative, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, National Center for Supercomputing Applications, Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, Purdue University, San Diego Supercomputer Center, Texas Advanced Computing Center, University of Chicago/ Argonne National Laboratory, National Center for Atmospheric Research, and the National Institute for Computational Science.
Significance: The Computation Institute is the home of the Grid Infrastructure Group, which oversees the management of the TeraGrid, and the UC/Argonne Resource Provider, which makes advanced visualization resources and services available to the TeraGrid community. The NSF TeraGrid contract with the University of Chicago, including overseeing the management of TeraGrid is CI’s largest project ($64 Million) and the total contract including the Resource Provider sites is one of the largest at the University ($148 Million).
Accomplishments: Using high-performance network connections, the TeraGrid integrates high-performance computers, data resources and tools, and high-end experimental facilities around the country. These integrated resources include more than 102 teraflops of computing capability and more than 15 petabytes (quadrillions of bytes) of online and archival data storage with rapid access and retrieval over high-performance networks. Through the TeraGrid, researchers can access over 100 discipline-specific databases. With this combination of resources, the TeraGrid is the world's largest, most comprehensive distributed cyberinfrastructure for open scientific research. Just between the University of Chicago and Argonne, some of the most important partnerships involve the Joint Theory Institute (a multidisciplinary institution dedicated to addressing what are amongst the most challenging scientific problems in chemistry, physics, biology, economics, etc.), the Joint Threat Anticipation Center (dedicated to ensuring national security), the Center for Environmental Science, as well as the Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope.
