Michael E. Papka

Bio: Michael E. Papka is an academic researcher from Argonne National Laboratory. The author has contributed to research in topics: Visualization & Rendering (computer graphics). The author has an hindex of 28, co-authored 195 publications receiving 3813 citations. Previous affiliations of Michael E. Papka include University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign & Indiana University.

The International Exascale Software Project roadmap

Abstract: Over the last 20 years, the open-source community has provided more and more software on which the world’s high-performance computing systems depend for performance and productivity. The community has invested millions of dollars and years of effort to build key components. However, although the investments in these separate software elements have been tremendously valuable, a great deal of productivity has also been lost because of the lack of planning, coordination, and key integration of technologies necessary to make them work together smoothly and efficiently, both within individual petascale systems and between different systems. It seems clear that this completely uncoordinated development model will not provide the software needed to support the unprecedented parallelism required for peta/ exascale computation on millions of cores, or the flexibility required to exploit new hardware models and features, such as transactional memory, speculative execution, and graphics processing units. This report describes the work of the community to prepare for the challenges of exascale computing, ultimately combing their efforts in a coordinated International Exascale Software Project.

TeraGrid: Analysis of organization, system architecture, and middleware enabling new types of applications

Abstract: The TeraGrid project has been supported through a variety of funding and in-kind con- tributions in addition to multiple grants from the National Science Foundation. State support has come from the states of California, Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Institutional support has come from Carnegie Melon University, Indiana Uni- versity, Purdue University, University of California-San Diego, University of Chicago, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Pittsburgh, the University of North Carolina, California Institute of Technology, and the University of Texas. Cor- porate support has come from Cray, Dell, IBM, Lilly Endowment, Qwest Communica- tions, and Sun Microsystems. Several hundred staff members from partner institutions contribute to the TeraGrid facility.

Overview of the I-Way: Wide-Area Visual Supercomputing

Abstract: This paper discusses the I-WAY project and provides an overview of the papers in this issue of IJSA. The I-WAY is an experimental environment for building distributed vir tual reality applications and for exploring issues of distrib uted wide-area resource management and scheduling. The goal of the I-WAY project is to enable researchers to use multiple internetworked supercomputers and ad vanced visualization systems to conduct very large scale computations. By connecting 12 ATM testbeds, 17 super computer centers, 5 virtual reality research sites, and over 60 applications groups, the I-WAY project has created an extremely diverse wide-area environment for exploring advanced applications. This environment has provided a glimpse of the future for advanced scientific and engineer ing computing.

Access grid: Immersive group-to-group collaborative visualization

Abstract: Immersive projection displays have played an important role in enabling large-format virtual reality systems such as the CAVE and CAVE like devices and the various immersive desks and desktop-like displays. However, these devices have played a minor role so far in advancing the sense of immersion for conferencing systems. The Access Grid project led by Argonne is exploring the use of large-scale projection based systems as the basis for building room oriented collaboration and semi-immersive visualization systems. The authors believe these multi-projector systems will become common infrastructure in the future, largely based on their value for enabling group-to-group collaboration in an environment that can also support large-format projector based visualization. Creating a strong sense of immersion is an important goal for future collaboration technologies. Immersion in conferencing applications implies that the users can rely on natural sight and audio cues to facilitate interactions with participants at remote sites. The Access Grid is a low cost environment aimed primarily at supporting conferencing applications, but it also enables semi-immersive visualization and in particular, remote visualization. In this paper, they describe the current state of the Access Grid project and how it relates and compares to other environments. They also discuss augmentations to the Access Grid that will enable it to support more immersive visualizations. These enhancements include stereo, higher performance rendering support, tracking and non-uniform projection surface.

Scientists in wonderland: A report on visualization applications in the CAVE virtual reality environment

Abstract: The authors present the experiences at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) in introducing computational scientists to the use of virtual reality as a research tool They describe the virtual environment, the CAVE They then describe several applications currently being developed at EVL using the CAVE and conclude with a discussion on possible research paths to follow in making virtual reality an effective tool for visualization >

Fast parallel algorithms for short-range molecular dynamics

Abstract: Three parallel algorithms for classical molecular dynamics are presented. The first assigns each processor a fixed subset of atoms; the second assigns each a fixed subset of inter-atomic forces to compute; the third assigns each a fixed spatial region. The algorithms are suitable for molecular dynamics models which can be difficult to parallelize efficiently—those with short-range forces where the neighbors of each atom change rapidly. They can be implemented on any distributed-memory parallel machine which allows for message-passing of data between independently executing processors. The algorithms are tested on a standard Lennard-Jones benchmark problem for system sizes ranging from 500 to 100,000,000 atoms on several parallel supercomputers--the nCUBE 2, Intel iPSC/860 and Paragon, and Cray T3D. Comparing the results to the fastest reported vectorized Cray Y-MP and C90 algorithm shows that the current generation of parallel machines is competitive with conventional vector supercomputers even for small problems. For large problems, the spatial algorithm achieves parallel efficiencies of 90% and a 1840-node Intel Paragon performs up to 165 faster than a single Cray C9O processor. Trade-offs between the three algorithms and guidelines for adapting them to more complex molecular dynamics simulations are also discussed.

The Anatomy of the Grid: Enabling Scalable Virtual Organizations

Abstract: "Grid" computing has emerged as an important new field, distinguished from conventional distributed computing by its focus on large-scale resource sharing, innovative applications, and, in some cases, high performance orientation. In this article, the authors define this new field. First, they review the "Grid problem," which is defined as flexible, secure, coordinated resource sharing among dynamic collections of individuals, institutions, and resources--what is referred to as virtual organizations. In such settings, unique authentication, authorization, resource access, resource discovery, and other challenges are encountered. It is this class of problem that is addressed by Grid technologies. Next, the authors present an extensible and open Grid architecture, in which protocols, services, application programming interfaces, and software development kits are categorized according to their roles in enabling resource sharing. The authors describe requirements that they believe any such mechanisms must satisfy and discuss the importance of defining a compact set of intergrid protocols to enable interoperability among different Grid systems. Finally, the authors discuss how Grid technologies relate to other contemporary technologies, including enterprise integration, application service provider, storage service provider, and peer-to-peer computing. They maintain that Grid concepts and technologies complement and have much to contribute to these other approaches.

The Anatomy of the Grid - Enabling Scalable Virtual Organizations

Abstract: "Grid" computing has emerged as an important new field, distinguished from conventional distributed computing by its focus on large-scale resource sharing, innovative applications, and, in some cases, high-performance orientation. In this article, we define this new field. First, we review the "Grid problem," which we define as flexible, secure, coordinated resource sharing among dynamic collections of individuals, institutions, and resources-what we refer to as virtual organizations. In such settings, we encounter unique authentication, authorization, resource access, resource discovery, and other challenges. It is this class of problem that is addressed by Grid technologies. Next, we present an extensible and open Grid architecture, in which protocols, services, application programming interfaces, and software development kits are categorized according to their roles in enabling resource sharing. We describe requirements that we believe any such mechanisms must satisfy, and we discuss the central role played by the intergrid protocols that enable interoperability among different Grid systems. Finally, we discuss how Grid technologies relate to other contemporary technologies, including enterprise integration, application service provider, storage service provider, and peer-to-peer computing. We maintain that Grid concepts and technologies complement and have much to contribute to these other approaches.

Globus: a Metacomputing Infrastructure Toolkit

Abstract: The Globus system is intended to achieve a vertically integrated treatment of application, middleware, and net work. A low-level toolkit provides basic mechanisms such as communication, authentication, network information, and data access. These mechanisms are used to con struct various higher level metacomputing services, such as parallel programming tools and schedulers. The long- term goal is to build an adaptive wide area resource environment AWARE, an integrated set of higher level services that enable applications to adapt to heteroge neous and dynamically changing metacomputing environ ments. Preliminary versions of Globus components were deployed successfully as part of the I-WAY networking experiment.

XSEDE: Accelerating Scientific Discovery

Abstract: Computing in science and engineering is now ubiquitous: digital technologies underpin, accelerate, and enable new, even transformational, research in all domains. Access to an array of integrated and well-supported high-end digital services is critical for the advancement of knowledge. Driven by community needs, the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) project substantially enhances the productivity of a growing community of scholars, researchers, and engineers (collectively referred to as "scientists"' throughout this article) through access to advanced digital services that support open research. XSEDE's integrated, comprehensive suite of advanced digital services federates with other high-end facilities and with campus-based resources, serving as the foundation for a national e-science infrastructure ecosystem. XSEDE's e-science infrastructure has tremendous potential for enabling new advancements in research and education. XSEDE's vision is a world of digitally enabled scholars, researchers, and engineers participating in multidisciplinary collaborations to tackle society's grand challenges.