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LSU Researchers Secure Additional Louisiana Optical Network Initiative Funding for TeraGrid Research Activities

The TeraGrid, a backbone of national cyberinfrastructure, received $30.2 million in extension funding from the National Science Foundation to continue providing an integrated, persistent computational resource for the national research community. The project, led by the University of Chicago, is titled "TeraGrid Extension: Bridging to eXtreme Digital (XD),” and extends TeraGrid operations through 2011. Included in the extension is $1.05 million that will come to the Louisiana Optical Network Initiative, or LONI, to extend the support and network connections that allow TeraGrid users to access LONI’s computational resources through March 2011.

Honggao Liu, Ph.D., LSU’s High-Performance Computing Director, and Daniel S. Katz, senior computational scientist with the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory who also is an adjunct associate professor in the LSU Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and previously led the Cyberinfrastructure Development Division at the LSU Center for Computation & Technology, developed and led LONI’s extension proposal for TeraGrid.

“We are pleased to receive this extension funding so we can continue our work with the TeraGrid, using this effort to enhance Louisiana’s own computational resources while contributing to the backbone of our national cyberinfrastructure,” Liu said.

TeraGrid is a National Science Foundation-funded research collaboration that incorporates high-performance computing resources from 11 partner sites across the country. Currently, TeraGrid resources include more than one petaflops of computing capability and more than 30 petabytes of online and archival data storage, with rapid access and retrieval across high-speed, fiber optic networks. TeraGrid researchers can access more than 100 discipline-specific databases. With this combination of resources, the TeraGrid is the world's largest, most comprehensive distributed cyberinfrastructure for open scientific research.

The National Science Foundation, or NSF, selected LONI to become a new TeraGrid resource provider in September 2007. Under Katz’s direction, LSU staff completed the work necessary to integrate LONI’s 50-teraflops centerpiece supercomputer, Queen Bee, into the TeraGrid, and the first national TeraGrid users began accessing Queen Bee in February 2008. LONI contributes half of Queen Bee’s computational cycles to support the national research community, in exchange for $2.59 million in funding that the NSF allocated to LONI starting in February 2008 through March 2010 for user support and system operations. The new extension award applies through March 2011.

LONI is one of 11 NSF TeraGrid resource providers. The others are Indiana University; National Center for Atmospheric Research; National Center for Supercomputing Applications; National Institute for Computational Sciences; Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center; Purdue University; San Diego Supercomputer Center; Texas Advanced Computing Center; and the University of Chicago/Argonne National Laboratory.

For more information on LONI, please visit http://www.loni.org. For more information on TeraGrid, please visit http://www.teragrid.org.

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