August 2008: The Steering Committee has concluded its work. Thank you for your interest and participation in the planning process. To download a copy of the final report, please click on "Reports."
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 eleven partner sites that uses high-performance network connections to integrate high-performance computers, data resources and tools, and experimental facilities around the country. The integrated resources include more than 750 teraflops of computing capability and more than 30 petabytes 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 is facilitating the planning process and providing support to the steering committee.
Planning activities began in summer 2007. They included face-to-face and online engagement designed to:
- gather information on user needs and priorities;
- compare user requirements; and
- develop options for the future delivery of TeraGrid resources and resources.
The steering committee is in the process of preparing its final report using the information and input gathered from stakeholders throughout the planning activities. A draft version of the final report will be provided to the PI for the planning grant and made available for public comment in May 2008. The final version of the report is targeted for the end of June 2008.
Contact
For further information, please contact Ann Zimmerman, University of Michigan, School of Information at asz at umich.edu or 734-764-1865.
