Steering Committee Draft Report Available for Comment HERE.
TeraGrid Planning Process
Background
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is providing support for a community-driven, participatory planning process whose goal is to provide information that will help guide the future evolution of TeraGrid. TeraGrid is a collaboration among nine partner sites that uses high-performance network connections to integrate high-performance computers, data resources and tools, and experimental facilities around the country. As of early 2007, the integrated resources include more than 102 teraflops of computing capability and more than 15 petabytes (quadrillions of bytes) of online and archival data storage. Through the TeraGrid, researchers can access over 100 discipline-specific databases.
Current awards for the operation, user support, and enhancement of the TeraGrid facility will expire in 2010. By this date, a petascale computing resource will be on the horizon, the user community will have grown and diversified, and new policies and services are likely to be needed to meet the needs of users and the expanding pool of high-performance computing resources. In anticipation of these changes, the planning process is focusing on the needs of current and emerging user communities as a critical aspect in the development of a path forward for TeraGrid in 2010 and beyond.
Planning Process Leadership
The process is being led by a steering committee representative of key stakeholder communities and comprising multiple areas of expertise.This document describes the committee's charge. The Chair of the committee is Dr. Timothy Killeen, Director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), and the Associate Chair is Dr. Roberta Balstad, Senior Fellow and former Director of Columbia University's Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN). The University of Michigan's School of Information received a grant from NSF to facilitate the planning process and provide support to the steering committee.
Planning activities will be conducted over the space of approximately one year and will include a combination of face-to-face and online engagement designed to work with stakeholders to collect ideas for the next generation of the TeraGrid.
The result of the planning process will be a report to stakeholders that outlines options for the design of the next generation TeraGrid and for the delivery of high-end resources and services based on user requirements. The report will be written by the steering committee using the information and input gathered from stakeholders throughout the planning activities.
Contact
For further information, please contact Ann Zimmerman, University of Michigan, School of Information at asz at umich.edu or 734-764-1865.
