September Feature Story
Expanded Software Repository Includes TeraGrid and CIP Views
TeraGrid and Cyberinfrastucture Partnership (CIP) users can now easily find information about third-party software that is available to them via a Web-based software repository. This expanded repository is modeled on NCSA's Software Repository, which contains third-party software information installed on NCSA's high-end computer systems.
News Stories for September
Tungsten Upgrade to Be Completed September 12-14
On September 12-14, system administrators will complete the upgrade of the Tungsten cluster to the new software stack. The cluster will be unavailable starting 8 AM Central Time on September 12. We expect to return to production status on Wednesday, September 14. If you have not tried the new software stack, please try it before September 12 and let NCSA's Consulting Office know if you have any problems. 1024 processors are available for testing at no charge. For more information, see /usr/news/New_Software_Stack on your Tungsten account. If you have any questions, please contact NCSA's Consulting Office at consult@ncsa.uiuc.edu or (217) 244-1144.
NSF Invites Input on HPC Performance Requirements
NSF invites interested parties to provide input on the HPC performance requirements of science and engineering research communities, on performance metrics appropriate for use in HPC system acquisition, and on potential benchmark codes representative of classes of science and engineering applications. Academic users or potential users of HPC systems, individuals and institutions with experience benchmarking HPC systems, and vendors are particularly encouraged to provide input. Providing such input will not affect an organization's or individual's eligibility to respond to any subsequent solicitation(s). If you wish to provide written input, please do so via email by September 16, 2005. Input should be provided in a Word or PDF document of no more than 6 pages attached to an email message sent to: hpc@nsf.gov with the subject line: "HPC requirements and metrics." More details are available at the NSF website.
Complete a survey, win an iPod
Each year, the high-end computing sites supported by the National Science Foundation conduct a survey of users to gather opinions and feedback that help to improve the resources and services provided and to guide the development of NSF cyberinfrastructure. This year's survey is now accepting responses and will be open through Sept. 18. As an incentive, three iPods will be given to three lucky respondents selected by random drawing. iPod winners will be notified by Sept. 30. The survey can be completed anonymously; however, only respondents who provide contact information will be entered in the iPod drawing. Consulting and help-desk staff may also contact you to follow up on your responses if you provide contact information. To complete the survey, please visit http://www.teragrid.org/survey/.
HDF Seeks User Input, Announce File Format Modifications
The Hierarchical Data Format (HDF) Group at NCSA is asking users for input on high-level API changes and the need for MPICH support for Windows. To respond, please contact help@hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu. In addition, they ask users to consider that developers are making changes to 5-1.7 that will modify the file format and may affect readability by HDF5-1.8 or any future release.
Latest Issue of CTWatch Quarterly Now Available
The August issue of Cyberinfrastructure Technology Watch Quarterly is now available. In "The Coming Era of Low Power, High-Performance Computing: Trends, Promises, and Challenges," guest editor Satoshi Matsuoka from the Tokyo Institute of Technology has assembled a articles from experts in the field who analyze the problems and opportunities confronting the HPC community as its insatiable demand for higher performance runs up against the physical and economic limits imposed by skyrocketing power requirements. Providing refreshing ideas and arguments for new areas of research in energy-efficient HPC, these articles examine and compare alternative strategies for making significant progress in this arena, including novel HPC architectures such as the massively parallel Blue Gene/L at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Software Releases
Access Toolkit 2.4 Available
Release highlights include automatic anonymous certificate request on startup (in absence of other certificates), VenueVNCServer.py, and integrated MyProxy support. New support and features for Windows and OSX are also included, along with many bug fixes.
Beta Version of GridShib Released
This initial GridShib release consists of two plug-ins, one for the GT Web services-based runtime and one for a Shibboleth Identity Provider (IdP). These plug-ins, in combination, enable the Globus Toolkit runtime to query a Shibboleth IdP to obtain attributes about a client, and to make authorization decisions based on those received attributes. The release also includes test applications for verifying the configuration of the Shibboleth and GT installations. The GT plug-in will work with any GT 4.x version of the Globus Toolkit (currently 4.0.1 and 4.0). The Shibboleth plug-in will work against the latest version of Shibboleth, the 1.3b release.
GridSolve
New features include tolerance for NATs, accelerated performance, support for asynchronous management of long-running jobs, streamlined development of new services, easier service deployment, and enhanced resource selection.
Conferences, Workshops, and Training Events
Call For Papers: ACST 2006 Deadline September 15
The IASTED International Conference on Advances In Computer Science and Technology (ACST 2006), held January 23-25, 2006 in Puerto Vallarto, Mexico, brings together international researchers and practitioners working at the cutting edge of several sub-areas of Computer Science and Engineering, as well as related areas such as scientific computing, computational biology and medicine, and bioinformatics, in order to promote the growth of interdisciplinary computer science and technology research. In addition to fostering research collaboration, this conference aims to enhance technology transfer to industry. ACST 2006 will be held in conjunction with the IASTED International Conference on Web-based Education (WBE 2006). See the website for paper guidelines; the deadline for submissions is September 15, 2005.
NCSA Sponsors Talk on Visual Analysis September 16
NCSA is sponsoring a presentation by David Ebert, director of the Purdue University Rendering and Perceptualization Lab, at 10 a.m. Sept. 16 in Room 5602 at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. Ebert will discuss "Extending Graphics and Visualization to Visual Analysis."
Call For Papers: GCE 05
This workshop, to be held November 18 in conjunction with SC05, will focus on portal projects that are adopting these new technologies and services. We seek papers from all aspects of portal development including portal architecture design and standards studies, toolkits developed in support of portals, as well as high-level application portals that utilize these technologies. The deadline for extended abstracts is September 26; details are available at the website.
Register for UIUC Cluster Building Workshop by October 1
This day and a half workshop will explore help users and system administrators specify, design, build, and deploy PC Clusters running Linux, and even determine if a cluster is right for a specific application. Starting with a discussion of clustering basics, participants will actually build their own PC cluster and get to test out their own applications. An NIH-sponsored workshop on theoretical and computational biophysics, the workshop will be held November 10-11 in room 5602 at The Beckman Institute, 405 N. Mathews Avenue, Urbana, IL. The deadline for registration is October 1.
Call For Papers: RAW 2006 Deadline October 15
The 13th Reconfigurable Architectures Workshop (RAW 2006) will be held on the Isle of Rhodes, Greece, April 26-27. 2006. RAW 2006 is associated with the 20th Annual International Parallel & Distributed Processing Symposium (IPDPS 2006) and is sponsored by the IEEE Computers Society's Technical Committee on Parallel Processing. RAW 2006 is one of the major meetings for researchers to present ideas, results, and on-going research on both theoretical and practical advances in Reconfigurable Computing. Authors are invited to submit manuscripts of original unpublished research in all areas of dynamic and runtime reconfiguration (foundations, algorithms, hardware architectures, devices, systems-on-chip (SoC), technologies, software tools, and applications). See the website for more information and paper guidelines. The deadline for submissions is October 15.
HPC Challenge Competition Announced
The DARPA High Productivity Computing Systems (HPCS) Program and HPCWire have announced the first annual HPC Challenge Award Competition. The goal of the competition is to focus the HPC community's attention on a broad set of HPC hardware and HPC software capabilities that are necessary to effectively use HPC systems. Awards will be made in two categories: best performance and most productive. Submissions must be made by October 15. More details are available at the website.
Housing Registration Open for SC2005
SC05 Housing is now open. Book your conference housing early to be assured of the best location and room rates. SC05 reservations for conference housing can be made through the Seattle Housing Bureau website or by calling the housing bureau. SC05 will take place November 12-18 in Seattle, Washington.
