data link for July 2002

Stories for July 2002

Editor's Note: It's summer, and data link is taking a small break. There will be no August issue. The September issue will be posted September 6, following the normal schedule of the first Friday each month.

NLANR Iperf measures network performance: Iperf has been developed to be an up-to-date tool for measuring TCP, UDP, and Multicast network performance. Version 1.6 was released in May. This software can measure bandwidth, delay, jitter, and datagram loss to help determine network performance. Iperf is developed and supported by the Distributed Applications Support Team (DAST), located at NCSA, of the National Laboratory for Applied Network Research (NLANR).
Hardware Performance on NCSA Linux Clusters Without the Hassle: Four utilities now available on NCSA's Platinum and Titan Linux clusters make it easy for you to measure hardware performance data without having to modify your application.
An Interview with Argonne's Steve Tuecke: Steve Tuecke, the lead software architect in the Distributed Systems Laboratory at Argonne National Laboratory, discusses issues and challenges relating to grid development and technology.This interview originally appeared in the June 14, 2002, edition of HPCwire. Reprinted by permission.
Alliance expands Access Grid-in-a-Box: On July 1 the Alliance and the Access Grid Documentation Project (AGDP) added another tutorial and a video to the Access Grid-in-a-Box. The new tutorial, "Overview for Decision Makers," helps nontechnical managers understand the benefits of AG. The recently added video provides a visual overview of an AG node and its equipment.
Development continues on archive and presentation server at ANL: In late June Argonne National Laboratory's Futures Laboratory officially released Voyager Multimedia Server version 1.0, which archives and presents data. ANL uses Voyager to record and playback Access Grid meetings. Voyager continues to be developed in an Open Source Model, which means that anyone interested can participate in the development.
Serving European AG nodes: EuroAG (European Access Grid) is a casual focal point for Access Grid sites in Europe. This convenient central website aims to serve AG's fast-growing European branch. Global AG sites provide a research environment for developing distributed data and visualizations and for studying issues relating to collaborative work in distributed environments.
More than 100 AG nodes around the world: There are now 104 active Access Grid sites—75 in the U.S. and 29 elsewhere around the world (in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom). Sites are listed in alphabetical order by institution, and contact information for each site is available through this link.
July 15 deadline for WISC grant applications: Applications are now being accepted for 2003 grants by the Women's International Science Collaboration (WISC) Program, which aims to increase the participation of women in international scientific research and to foster new research partnerships among U.S. scientists and researchers in other countries. WISC is funded by NSF and administered by the Directorate for International Programs of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Applications must follow region-specific guidelines.
Proceedings available for ISC2002: ISC2002, 17th International Supercomputer Conference held late June in Heidelberg, Germany, was a major event of the supercomputer world and included the introduction of the 19th TOP500 list. For those who missed the conference, presentations are available through the ISC website. You can also purchase a CD containing all the conference presentations.

Conferences and Workshops & Training Events

NCSA's Access Grid Seminar Series begins this month: Beginning July 9, NCSA is offering a seminar series over the Access Grid to present information about high-performance computing tools and applications developed by Alliance partners and NCSA. Each month at least one two-hour session will be presented. Sessions are currently scheduled on OSCAR, VIAS, HDF5, Biology Workbench, D2K, and BioCoRE. Staff of NCSA Education, Outreach, and Training (EOT) are coordinating the series.
PACS' Access Grid user seminars this summer: The Alliance PACS Training Group has organized a new set of seminars for July 10, August 1, and September. These approximately one-hour seminars seminars are conducted over the Access Grid by and for AG users to encourage deployment and effective use of the AG. Although these events are free, advance registration is required.
Advance registration closes July 10 for GGF5/HPDC-11 in Scotland: The Fifth Global Grid Forum will be held jointly with IEEE HPDC-11 July 21-24 in Edinburgh. Separate registrations are required, and onsite registrations will be accepted.
Grid Forum Korea: The Grid Forum Korea 2002 Summer Workshop in Seoul, Korea, July 10-12, features an international slate of invited speakers, including NCSA's John Towns. Early registration ends July 8.
Flurry of summer deadlines for SC2002: SC2002: From Terabytes to Insights will be held in Baltimore November 16-22. Statements of intent for High-Performance Bandwidth Challenge are due July 12. Submissions are due July 29 for final version of technical papers, HPC Challenge Awards, birds-of-a-feather sessions, posters, and research exhibits abstracts. Nominations for the Seymour Cray and Sidney Fernbach awards are due July 31. Full proposals for the bandwidth challenge are due August 2. The Exhibitor Forum deadline is September 1. Student volunteer applications must be received by September 6.
Registrations due by July 19 for LCI workshop in Japan: August 26-30 are the dates for the LCI workshop in Osaka, Japan. This is the second LCI workshop overseas and the first in Asia. Linux Clusters Institute (LCI) workshops are intensive, hands-on sessions for computational scientists, engineers, and cluster system administrators. Participants are encouraged to bring along their own applications/problems. Registrations are also being accepted (until September 6) for the September 30-October 4 LCI workshop at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.
NeSC workshop July 20 in Glasgow, Scotland: The NeSC Workshop on Applications and Testbeds on the Grid is an international forum for grid application users and infrastructure developers to exchange ideas. NeSC (U.K.'s National e-Science Centre) is organizing the workshop in collaboration with Global Grid Forum's Applications and Grid User Services research groups to precede the GGF5/HPDC-11 meeting. Online registrations are still being accepted.
Early registration ends July 26 for ACM SIGCOMM 2002: ACM SIGCOMM 2002 will be August 19-23 in Pittsburgh, PA. This is the annual conference of the Special Interest Group on Data Communication (SIGCOMM), a special interest group of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
NLANR/Internet2 Joint Techs meeting in Boulder, CO, July 29-31: Special focus areas for this meeting will be optical networking, scientific applications emphasizing distributed and grid networking technologies, and TCP issues. Due to post-9/11 security measures at many government facilities, citizens of foreign countries must register by July 12.
Early registration for Cluster 2002 closes July 31: Cluster 2002: IEEE Fourth International Conference on Cluster Computing will be September 23-26 in Chicago. Conference co-chairs are Dan Reed of NCSA/Alliance and Mark Baker of University of Portsmouth. This forum for researchers to share recent results and new developments in hardware, software, and applications is being organized by Argonne National Laboratory and NCSA.
Advanced middleware meeting begins July 31: July 31-August 2 are the dates for Advanced Campus Architectural Middleware Planning (CAMP) in Boulder, CO. Targeted for experienced middleware architects, this highly technical meeting will focus on current research in key middleware areas.
Papers due August 1 for Virtual Congress of the World Heritage Convention: To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the World Heritage Convention, UNESCO is organizing a series of themed conferences on the topic World Heritage in the Digital Age. Through the Internet, new media, and joint proceedings, eight events around the globe will be tied together in a Virtual Congress. The events will occur this fall in Egypt, China, Senegal, Mexico, France, and Korea.
Web100 user workshop in August: Users of the Web100 software will meet in Boulder, CO, on August 1-2. Registration is by invitation only.
Early registration ends August 26 for Linux clusters conference in October: A conference for high-performance Linux clusters users and systems administrators, the Third LCI International Conference on Linux Clusters: The Linux HPC Revolution 2002, will be October 23-25 in St. Petersburg, FL. Registration will close completely on September 20.