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NERSC 3 Greenbook

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The plan:

The early steps toward the ER computing scenario for the turn of the century are in the NERSC Implementation Plan. The CRAY-2s will be retired and the expense of maintenance and power will allow NERSC to prototype a likely ``local compute server'' system as envisaged in for the year 2000. The NERSC staff will be looking into interoperative systems with the prevalent workstations and the issues of cross-platform (standards driven) object-oriented applications development software. The OSC has also sponsored developmental work on distributed computing tools and applications as well as security and interoperability issues through the Distributed Computing Coordination Committee. With the completion of the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory at PNNL, a well-funded discipline-focused local site will exist and provide an opportunity for OSC to prototype the kind of distributed computing appropriate for the year 2000. Meanwhile, the NERSC acquisition of a massively parallel machine in FY1996 will provide a prototype of the Year 2000 access site. Thus the components of the computing infrastructure for 2000 are presently under development.

The target ER computing system described above would also have its management and support distributed. The local site capabilities would be the responsibility of the site and programs: this would insure that each local system is responsive to the missions of the site and associated programs and that the local capabilities are properly scaled. The access site would be a center of high performance computing research and would be supported by the OSC. OSC would be responsible for providing means for coordination of the capabilities for the heterogeneous distributed computing (interoperating computing and communications software, and some services) to insure that the system can work. The local sites need to be coordinated with the access site through the Offices of Energy Research. This plan would return the emphasis on top-end computing in the services/capabilities provided by OSC funding.

NERSC 3 Greenbook

Next: Beyond 2000: Up: Target for Energy Research Previous: Access site: