Beware the cluster hog
In order for Dr Carlo Kopp, a lecturer in Computer Architecture at Monash University, to attain his title, he had to solve a series of "very intensive parametrised propagation simulations", or big complex problems.
Luckily, Dr Kopp found himself at Monash University, where his research became a simulations guinea pig for Abramson's recently-commissioned clusters.
"I wanted to buy the biggest number-crunching machine the budget could support," Kopp explains. "I started with a 20 CPU cluster, hogged it completely, and kept hogging it, no matter how many CPUs David [Abramson] got the budget to add."
As a result, Kopp was able to take his research beyond the boundary simulations he had originally planned and was eventually able to map out the problems in considerable detail.
Despite his initial scepticism, Kopp soon overcame concerns regarding cluster software fragility, becoming a self-confessed departmental cluster hog, as well as an enthusiastic evangelist of the technology.
According to the CSIRO's David Abel, Kopp's previous scepticism is not uncommon amongst researchers, and this fact continues to present a significant hurdle to the uptake and development of grid computing.
"Awareness is another issue we need to overcome by making business and the science community aware of the potential of grid computing," Able says, pointing out that heightened interest in, and understanding of grid computing should lead to an increase in applications development in the area.
Martin Sevior, a grid computing convert and associate professor at the Melbourne University School of Physics, is currently involved in the development of applications aimed at solving high-energy physics problems.
"Basically I investigated it [grid computing] closely and decided it really did work," Sevior says. "We're currently involved in two very large-scale experiments; one in Japan that has already generated in the order of ten terabytes of data, an amount which we expect to increase by a factor of ten."
Using grid computing, Sevior believes it will take approximately one year to complete computations which might have otherwise taken ten. Ultimately, he hopes it will help him to locate proof of theoretical physics measure known Higgs Boson, which is thought to provide particles with their mass.
"In order to find it we need to create particle collisions at energies greater than anything that currently exists, and examine trillions of collisions. Without grid computing we would be an order of magnitude short of time and money," Sevior explains.
At this stage, the diverse but interconnected Australian-based developments in grid computing benefit from what Able describes as a "remarkable" but largely informal degree of cooperation. Through projects such as Grangenet, and what Dr Buchhorn describes as a certain degree of "generosity" with respect to grid computing resources, Australia could well carve a niche at the forefront of applications development in this area. Not to mention convert the "bang for buck" advantages of grid computing to advances in other areas of scientific endeavour.
"We need to combine the disciplinary expertise with the core academic strengths," Able says. "Collaborations of the kind we are already seeing are essential. If we compete as a set of small teams we will get left in the dust."
I'd gladly donate excess processing power of 3 PCs except I'm capped on data. I think most Australian's would give excess processing time to the scientific community if they didn't have to worry about their data cap being used up in a day. Sorry, Telstra and the lack of initiative from the Federal Government is the scientific communities greatest bane to achievment of their greatest hope.