The Netherlands present themselves at SC|09 in Portland OR with a demonstration of several innovative and interesting projects. This is a continuation of the Dutch presence in Baltimore MD (2002), Phoenix AZ (2003), Pittsburgh PA (2004), Seattle WA (2005), Tampa FL (2006), Reno NV (2007) and Austin TX (2008).
The "Dutch Pavillion" is cooperation and combined show of major research institutes and not-for-profit research network infrastructure and supercomputing organisations and funding agencies.
For a view at the booth click here (only during the exhibition of course).
What can be seen?
Rapidly
varying flow over a weir
Modeling
Hurricane Waves and Storm Surge on Petascale
Computers
Integrated
Environmental Modeling Done
Efficiently
MPWide,
the liht-weight communication
library
Network
Control in Distributed Computing
40
Gb/s alien wavelength transmission via a multivendor 10 Gb/s DWDM
infrastructure
Cinegrid
Desription Language
High
Performance Computing @ CIT University of
Groningen
Dutch
National Supercomputer Huygens at
SARA
Netherlands
National Computing Facilities
Foundation
40Gb/s
alien wavelength transmission via a multi-vendor 10Gb/s DWDM
infrastructure
BiG
Grid Project
Surfnet
Introduction
BiG Grid is a large scale effort to realise a major grid for Science and Research in The Netherlands. The project has become known under the name "BiG Grid", and has been targeted to a broad range of scientific research disciplines which can take advantage of the ICT resources, available in a science grid infrastructure.
While the Netherlands has been a leading player in the development of the grid, and has considerable expertise in bio-informatics, distributed sensors networks, and particle physics, the large-scale infrastructure to fully exploit this position of leadership is missing. It has been the purpose of the BiG Grid proposal to realise such a science-wide grid infrastructure in the Netherlands.
A basic ingredient for the proposed infrastructure is the network. The Netherlands are already in an excellent position, due to the world-class network services provided by SURFnet. The currently available resources (like the National Supercomputer, compute cluster capacity, data storage facilities, etc.) will need to be "gridified" and extended to a level which enables ground-breaking scientific research.
The BiG Grid project is funded for the period 2007-2012 with a total budget of M€ 28.8. The BiG Grid project will cover a full range of hardware entities, but also a significant amount of the budget is reserved for manpower, to attract and to bring a wide range of scientific disciplines to the science grid. The project has been initiated by the Netherlands National Computing Facilities Foundation (NCF), the National institute for subatomic physics (Nikhef) and the Netherlands Bio-Informatics Centre (NBIC).
Mission
The project's mission is:
To realise a fully operational world-class and resources-rich grid environment at the national level in the Netherlands to serve public scientific research, including particle physics, life sciences and all other disciplines, and to encourage actively general grid usage across all disciplines.
The science case for the BiG Grid proposal is the integral of many different science cases, reflecting the broad scientific community base. The realisation of BiG Grid is crucial to the success and continuity of many Dutch research groups, covering important areas such as life sciences in a broad context, astronomy, particle physics, meteorology and climate research, water management, to name but a few. The very nature of the new infrastructure, a multidimensional collaboration enabler and accelerator, allows for direct participation from social sciences, humanities, and also addresses communities in administrative domains (administrative grids such as digital academic repositories).
The realisation of the grid infrastructure provides opportunities for enhanced international visibility. Dutch participation in international generic grid developments is already prominent (in flagship projects like EGEE and DEISA) and are on a national scale covered by the BSIK funded VL-e project (Virtual Laboratory for e-Science), whilst for the life sciences, coordinated by the Netherlands Genomics Initiative, NBIC (Netherlands BioInformatics Centre), partly BSIK funded as well, is the key player for enabling bio-informatics methodology.
Realisation of this major project puts the Netherlands at the forefront of grid developments. The infrastructure enables many national ambitions. The excellent position of Dutch academic hospitals in their collections of patient data can be enhanced by using the grid for biobanking. Major advances in drug discovery are enabled through combining data from various research communities as well as through the availability of massive compute resources enabling direct drug interaction modelling. The infrastructure allows industrial research labs (e.g. Philips) to profit from the available resources. It allows the LOFAR project to not only position itself as a multi sensor radio-astronomy centre but also as the European centre from which a variety of scientific communities using the LOFAR data will be served. It positions the Netherlands as one of the (worldwide only) ten Tier-1 sites for CERN's LHC experiments.
More information
More information can be obtained from the BiG Grid project office or from the BiG Grid website (www.biggrid.nl).
BiG Grid Project Office p/a NWO/NCF
Postbus 93575
2509 AN Den Haag
michielse@nwo.nl
Network facilities for higher education and research. SURFnet enables breakthrough education and research. We develop and operate the hybrid SURFnet6 network and provide innovative services in the areas of security, authentication and authorisation, group communication and video.
SURFdiensten.
Every day SURFnet provides access to the Internet to over 750,000 scientists, teachers and students in higher education and research. This allows them to securely send large amounts of data and to communicate with other network users around the world.
Collaboration and innovation
SURFnet combines the demand of institutions for higher education and research and in doing so creates advantages of scale and collaboration for all connected institutions. Sustained innovation means that users always have one of the fastest and most advanced networks in the world at their disposal. Furthermore SURFnet enables multimedia collaboration between institutions, researchers and students through advanced middleware and applications. In this manner SURFnet provides the ICT foundation that underpins innovation in higher education and research in the Netherlands.
SURFnet stimulates the telecommunications and Internet market in the Netherlands. The new possibilities thus find their way to other sectors, reinforcing the knowledge economy in the Netherlands.
A high-grade and reliable network
SURFnet provides the national and international network facilities for the higher education and research community in the Netherlands. We interconnect the local networks of over 180 connected institutions and link them to the rest of the world. Our hybrid network is among the fastest and most innovative networks in the world.
GigaPort
The development of SURFnet6 takes place within the context of the GigaPort project. This five-year collaboration between public and private sectors started on 1 January 2004 under the name GigaPort Next Generation Network. GigaPort's goal is to reinforce the national knowledge infrastructure.
Secure and advanced Internet services
SURFnet continually develops new Internet services for institutions and end users:
SURFnet's pioneering role
For years the SURFnet network and services have been recognised as leading and ranking among the most advanced in the world. In its pioneering role SURFnet puts in a sustained effort to develop knowledge and experience on new technologies. SURFnet shares this knowledge and experience with its users as well as the international community.
In order to contribute to the development and standardisation of new technology SURFnet actively participates in international projects and organisations. These include the European GÉANT project and TERENA, the collaborative organisation of national research networks. SURFnet also maintains close links with international organisations such as Internet2, the American research network, and the Canadian research network, CANARIE. SURFnet arranges standardisation agreements in these international settings to enable the use of applications in cross-border collaborations.
SURFnet is part of SURF. SURF is the collaborative organisation for higher education institutions and research institutes aimed at breakthrough innovations in ICT. Other SURF-organisations are SURFfoundation and SURFdiensten.