National Science Foundation prepares for transition to eXtreme Digital generation of cyberinfrastructure

Scientists, engineers, and other U.S. researchers may apply until January 15, 2010 (12:00 midnight submitter’s local time) for the next quarterly review of requests for free allocations of high-performance computer time, advanced user support, and storage resources that are available through the National Science Foundation (NSF) Office of Cyberinfrastructure’s (OCI) TeraGrid. To apply for an allocation of any size, please visit TeraGrid’s online submission system: https://pops-submit.teragrid.org/.

Each quarter, a panel of computational experts known as the TeraGrid Resource Allocations Committee (TRAC) evaluates requests primarily on the appropriateness and technical aspects of using TeraGrid resources. Applications received by the January 15 deadline will be considered at the March 2010 TRAC meeting, and awards will be available for the one-year period from April 1, 2010 through March 31, 2011. TeraGrid allocates more than 1 billion processor hours to meritorious requests each year. At the December 2009 TRAC meeting, 200 million processor hours and nearly 1 petabyte of data storage were awarded to 100 research teams. TeraGrid resources currently exceed 2 petaflops of combined computing capability and more than 60 petabytes of online and archival data storage from 11 resource provider sites across the nation.

For the next round of awards, researchers can request time on 15 systems, including TeraGrid’s two largest, which were funded under NSF OCI’s Track 2 Program—Ranger at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC), and Kraken at the National Institute for Computational Sciences (NICS)—and the newest TeraGrid resource, the Longhorn remote visualization and data analysis system at TACC. Another remote visualization and data analysis system, Nautilus at NICS, will enter production in October 2010. For more information about TeraGrid resources, visit the resource catalog: http://teragrid.org/userinfo/hardware/resources.php

TeraGrid, the NSF, and the TeraGrid Science Advisory Board are actively preparing for the transition to the next phase of NSF-supported cyberinfrastructure, called eXtreme Digital (XD), which will begin April 1, 2011. While a competition for the management of XD is ongoing, the program solicitation requires the winning team to provide continuity of service between TeraGrid and XD. To facilitate this, TeraGrid will provide transition documentation, training, consulting, and application support services for three months beyond the start of XD. Allocations awarded at the June 2010 TRAC meeting will be the first to span both TeraGrid and XD (July 1, 2010 through June 30, 2011).  For more information about XD visit the NSF/OCI web site: http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=503282.

For the most up-to-date information, including an XD transition schedule and answers to frequently asked questions, visit: http://www.teragrid.org/XDTransition. Contact TeraGrid with specific questions by email: XDQuestions@teragrid.org, via the TeraGrid User Portal web form (select the consulting tab), or by calling 1-866-907-2383.