HMCS-G: grid-enabled hybrid computing system for computational astrophysics

Abstract

The authors have developed a hybrid computing system called HMCS-G, a Grid-enabled Heterogeneous Multi-Computer System, that provides a multiple cluster environment centered around a dedicated machine for gravity calculation. The purpose of HMCS-G is to provide an ideal computational environment for astrophysical study involving multiple physical phenomena. The worker cluster may comprise general-purpose PCs to perform tasks such as hydrodynamics computations, while the specialpurpose machine, in this case a GRAPE-6 cluster, performs gravity calculations for all pairs of particles in the system. These systems are connected by OmniRPC, a grid-enabled RPC system that supports Globus and ssh for authentication. HMCS-G effectively provides worldwide access to a GRAPE-6 cluster, thereby securing several TFLOPS performance for intensive computations such as gravity calculation. All participating PC-clusters share this resource in a time-based manner using grid technology. The actual turn-around response time was measured for a system implemented over a number of institutions, and it was confirmed that HMCS-G provides acceptable real-world application performance. Precise simulations of galaxy formation are currently being performed on clusters in several institutes, involving smoothed particle hydrodynamics and radiative transfer in the context of complete gravity calculation as the first real application of HMCS-G.of the 3rd IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Cluster Computing and the Grid (CCGRID'03) 0--7695-1919-9/03 $17.00 © 2003 IEEE Proceedings of the 3rd IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Cluster Computing and the Grid (CCGRID'03) 0--7695-1919-9/03 $17.00 © 2003 IEEE Proceedings of the 3rd IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Cluster Computing and the Grid (CCGRID'03) 0--7695-1919-9/03 $17.00

Implementation and Evaluation of Multiple GridRPC Services for Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Proteins

“…As mentioned previously, we also assumed that the server and clients are connected through a high-speed network. When such is not available, the GridRPC approach could be modified by incorporating an idea that can be found in the work of Boku, et al 20) . In their design for a gravity calculation system (i.e., HMCS-G), the dedicated cluster was treated as an single-atomic resource and was shared between multiple clients in a time-sharing manner.…”

Merging Grid Technologies

“…There are many ways for the enabling Grid data storage and data processing in astronomy: development of a data processing system for ongoing and upcoming astronomical missions, for example, Planck [2] and XMM-Newton [4], creating a new hardware and software infrastructure for astronomical applications (for example, [3]), porting existing astronomical applications to the Grid. There were significant efforts in the integration between Virtual Observatory and the Grid (see, for example, [5]) which resulted in Virtual Observatory VOSpace interface.…”

“…One example is the CROSSGRID project. 3 The Astro-WISE information system, or Astro-WISE 4 [1], is an example of a specific Grid solution initially developed for data storage and data processing of astronomical images. Unlike CROSSGRID, the integration of Astro-WISE and EGEE is performed on the infrastructural level, and not on the level of applications only.…”