Scientific Computing

Overview •Computing and communications resources •New communication and information services •Training

ICTP network ~ 550 PC's (Linux and Windows) ~ 200 Mac's ~ 50 Unix systems ICTP network

ICTP Network INTERNET Firewall University of Trieste Physics Dept. SISSA Net Centre E. Fermi Building Galileo Building Microprocessor Lab. Building II floor A II floor B I floor Ground floor Adratico Guest House LIS WWF 1Gb/s 100 Mb/s 10 Mb/s 2Mb/s

ICTP network ICTP SISSA Trieste (University,Scientific Park, Synchrotron Radiation facility, Int.Centre for Genetic Engineering, National Condensed Matter Physics Labs, National High Energy Physics Labs, Astronomical Observatory, Geophysical Observatory) GARR (italian national academic network) Europe (155 Mbps now, 2500 Mbps by end 2001) US (622 Mbps) 2 Mb/s 10 Mb/s 2Mb/s 8 Mb/s 6 Mb/s

ICTP network •Supports voice, multimedia 2Q 2001 •Italian & European academic backbone support voice, multimedia (now in practice; with quality assurance in 2001/2002) •Internet distributed computing for physics (Euro GRID) on Italian, European network in 2002/2003 –ICTP relation to this project not yet defined

Scientific Computing •Mainly in-house programs –Numerical:mainly Fortran •Climatology •Statistical physics •Condensed matter physics –Symbolic: Mathematica, Maple •Statistical physics •High Energy physics

Computing facilities: clusters IBM E260 2 Processors 1-2 GB RAM Sun Ultra 60 2 Processors 1-2 GB RAM Intel Pentium III 670 MHz 512 MB RAM

Computing facilities: clusters IBM E260 2 Processors 1-2 GB RAM Sun Ultra 60 2 Processors 1-2 GB RAM Intel Pentium IV 1500 MHz,1 GB RAM

Computing facilities: supercomputer access •Some groups access CINECA (Inter- university supercomputer centre, Bologna, Italy): –Cray T3E –IBM SP3 –SGI Origin 2000 •Specific research grants

Communications: very low bandwidth •Low bandwith, low cost applications –Www4mail: mail access to web •supports forms, database access •~3000 accesses/day –Scientific talk •prototype: web conferencing and chat tool supporting mathematics

Communications: inter-personal communications •Low-bandwidth (voice+data) scientific interpersonal communications: –Voice over IP, document sharing, shared (virtual) whiteboard, handwriting capture: scientific communication •prototypes with Turin, Lima, Rome; Beijing, Cairo, Bonn following –tools for low-cost infrastructure (access control, multipoint discussion)

Communications: on line conferences –Conferences/workshops held at ICTP archived : •voice + slides ; –lecture notes,proceedings, complementary materials if any ; •Web accessible •comments, discussion forum (if authorized and moderated by author) •semi-automatic: low cost => standard practice? •Indexing: activity, author, title words, keywords...

Communications: on line conferences •Voice, slides accessible on-line in near-real- time: –1-3 minutes after being pronounced/ displayed –netcast

Communications: on line conferences •Prototypes in 2000 – •Service 3Q 2001 •Extensions: near real time interaction of remote participants through inter-personal communications tools

Training •Visitors from developing countries (Benin, Nigeria, Iran till now), to learn through practice –extended stays (3-6 months) –very limited by scarce local manpower •organization of computer-oriented courses for academic staff of developing countries (networking, Web usage for science)Web usage for science