[News-releases] Elite Canadian Computing Centre Helps Launch Worldwide Grid

[Tim Meyer]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE OCTOBER 3, 2008, 3:00AM PDT

** Elite Canadian Computing Centre Helps Launch Worldwide Grid **

(Vancouver, B.C.) - Today, three weeks after the first particle beams were
injected into the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, the Worldwide LHC
Computing Grid celebrated the start of its crucial data challenge.
Canadians gathered at TRIUMF in Vancouver to celebrate their role as host to
one of eleven massive "Tier-1" computing centres connected to CERN in
Geneva, Switzerland.  The ATLAS Canada Tier-1 Data Centre at TRIUMF provides
another vital link between Canada and the global science and technology
community. 

"Our ability to manage data at this scale is the product of several years of
intense testing," said Ian Bird, leader of the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid
project. "Today's result demonstrates the excellent and successful
collaboration we have enjoyed with countries all over the world.  Without
these international partnerships, such an achievement would be impossible."
The Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG) combines the power of more than 140
computer centres, the result of collaboration between 33 countries, to
analyze more than 15 million Gigabytes of data every year, produced from the
hundreds of millions of subatomic collisions expected inside the LHC every
second.  

"The Worldwide LHC Computing Grid puts in place the necessary infrastructure
to allow the ATLAS Canada Tier-1 Data Centre to contribute to an
international effort to understand nature at the most fundamental level,"
said Dr. Eliot Phillipson, President and CEO of the Canada Foundation for
Innovation (CFI).  "The extensive partnership on which this project rests
will ensure the most effective and efficient use of resources and the
greatest impact on Canada's capacity to innovate."  CFI provided $10.6
million in support of the national proposal led by Simon Fraser University
in 2006 to launch the Canadian Tier-1 Data Centre. 

Canada's high-profile position in the global grid is largely a result of the
advanced networking infrastructure provided by CANARIE and BCNET.  "CANARIE
is very proud to partner with others in order to provide the vital link for
data to be brought to the Canadian Computing Centres from CERN," said Guy
Bujold, President and CEO of CANARIE Inc.  "Our advanced network also
enables the sharing of this massive amount of data at various Canadian
sites."  

"BCNET's newly upgraded Optical Regional Advanced Network is providing
TRIUMF with unprecedented bandwidth, a dedicated 10 gigabit per second fibre
optic connection," said Michael Hrybyk, President and CEO of BCNET.  "The
province's research network is a vital link for transporting large amounts
of data around the world." 

"By playing a critical role in this international project, Canada is joining
the computing and networking elite of the world," said Michel C. Vetterli,
project leader of the Canadian Tier-1 Data Centre at TRIUMF and professor of
physics at Simon Fraser University.  "The launch of the WLCG not only gives
Canadian researchers first-class access to the physics of the LHC, but it
also puts Canada on the map as a major player in this priority area of
technology."

CERN was effusive in its praise of the successful launch of the data-sharing
and networking project.  "The Worldwide LHC Computing Grid is a vital pillar
of the LHC project," said Jos Engelen, chief scientific officer for the LHC
project. "It is an absolute necessity for analysis of the LHC data. It is
the result of a 'silent revolution' in large scale computing over the last
five years."

The WLCG relies on dedicated optical fibre networks to distribute data from
CERN to eleven major computer centres in Europe, North America, and Asia.
Together, these distributed computers provide the power to manage the LHC's
data.  The innovative networking backbone provided by CANARIE has been
essential for Canada's participation in this "silent revolution."  BCNET,
Cybera, HEPNET, ORION, and RISQ also play important roles in connecting the
"Tier-2" centres at McGill University, Simon Fraser University, University
of Alberta, the University of Toronto, and the University of Victoria to the
Tier-1 centre at TRIUMF.  The Tier-2 centres will use the results of the
first stage of data analysis at the Tier-1 centres to extract
ground-breaking physics results from LHC data.

Grid computing benefits more than just physics, however.  Large-scale
computing is also actively used in chemistry, biology, and environmental
research.  Large financial firms around the world have been taking advantage
of grid computing with some purchasing clusters of more than 50,000 CPUs
running grid software to process more than a 1,000 Gigabytes of data in one
day. 

The ATLAS Canada Tier-1 Data Centre is managed by a consortium of
universities (see attachment) led by Simon Fraser University in Burnaby,
B.C.  It was funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) and the
British Columbia Knowledge Development Fund (BCKDF) with significant in-kind
contributions from TRIUMF and from the computing industry, notably IBM, in
the form of discounts on hardware purchases.  

--ends--


CANADIAN MEDIA CONTACTS 

ATLAS Canada Tier-1 Data Centre
Prof. Michel Vetterli
Tier-1 Data Centre Project Leader
TRIUMF/Simon Fraser University
Phone: +1 778 782 5488 
E-mail: vetm at triumf.ca	

ATLAS CANADA
Prof. Robert McPherson
ATLAS-Canada Spokesperson
University of Victoria / IPP 
Phone: +1 604 222 7654
E-mail: rmcphers at uvic.ca

TRIUMF, Canada's National Laboratory for Particle and Nuclear Physics
Dr. Timothy I. Meyer
Head, Strategic Planning & Communications
TRIUMF
Phone: + 1 604 222 7674
E-mail: tmeyer at triumf.ca


********************************************************
Timothy I. Meyer, Ph.D.
Head, Strategic Planning and Communications
TRIUMF
4004 Wesbrook Mall
Vancouver, BC V6T 2A3
Tel: 604-222-7674
E-mail: tmeyer at triumf.ca
********************************************************

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