A New DC Project

[CBR]

http://athome.web.cern.ch/athome/

What is LHC@home?
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest scientific instrument. It is currently being built at CERN on the outskirts of Geneva, Switzerland. When it is switched on in 2007, it will accelerate beams of protons to unprecedented energies in a 27km long circular tunnel. The two particle beams will travel in opposite directions around this loop and at four points on the ring, their paths will intersect, and particles will collide head-on with particles traveling in the opposite direction. At the intersection points, scientists are building four huge detectors, the size of cathedrals, to detect the results of the collisions.

Most of the scientific computing challenges that the LHC experiments are facing will require access to huge amounts of storage - the LHC will produce 15 Petabytes (15 million Gigabytes) of data per year. These data requirements means that most analysis programmes cannot be run on individual PCs. This is why CERN is leading the development of Grid computing, which aims to link hundreds of major computing centres around the world.

However, there are exceptions where public computing makes sense for the LHC. CERN's IT Department is interested in evaluating the sort of technology that is used by SETI@home for future use. A program called SixTrack, which simulates particles traveling around the LHC to study the stability of their orbits, can fit on a single PC and requires relatively little input or output.

SixTrack, which was developed by Frank Schmidt of the CERN AB Department, produces results that are essential for verifying the long term stability of the high energy particles in the LHC. Lyn Evans, head of the LHC project, says that "the results from SixTrack are really making a difference, providing us with new insights into how the LHC will perform".

Typically SixTrack simulates 60 particles at a time as they travel around the ring, and runs the simulation for 100000 loops around the ring. That may sound like a lot, but it is less than 10s in the real world. Still, it is enough to test whether the beam is going to remain on a stable orbit for a much longer time, or risks losing control and flying off course into the walls of the vacuum tube - a very serious problem that could result in the machine being stopped for repairs if it happens in real life. By repeating such calculations thousands of times, it is possible to map out the conditions under which the beam should be stable.

Working with the team of Dave Anderson, the Director of SETI@home and BOINC, a dedicated team of students, under the leadership of Ben Segal, has developed a BOINC interface for SixTrack. Tests over the last two months in the IT Department, involving 25 desktop computers, have been very successful, and CERN is now eager to extend the tests to the alpha and beta tester communities of BOINC, with the view of a public launch on CERN's 50th anniversary, the 29th of September 2004, or shortly thereafter.

So far, LHC@home only runs on Windows machines, but we are keen to extend it to other platforms in the near future, with the help of the tester communities, if possible.

The alpha version of the screensaver displays a cross-section of the beam of particles that SixTrack is simulating.

Everytime a new magnet is installed on the LHC these days, measurements are made of its properties. If it deviates significantly from the specified values, SixTrack is immediately launched to study what impact, if any, this difference might have on the operations of the machine. Getting the results as soon as possible makes a big difference for the engineers installing the magnets. So your participation in LHC@home really does help to build the LHC!

Sounds interesting enough. But I think I'll stick with F@H.

 

[dr_dirtnap]

Yeah, I will stick with F@H until will find a cure for everything we are looking for.

So far F@H has been the best project that I have seen for DC. I know all the effort that everyone from the [H] and all the other teams won't be in vain.

 

[pageian]

Sounds very intersting. I'd have to say that medical research is a higher priority for me personally, but I can definately see some value in this. One of the big draws of distributed computing to me is putting machines to use to advance science, medical or otherwise. We've still got quite a few machines sitting around idle that could be doing something useful, maybe this will draw some of those machines.

 

[CBR]

Yeah, I agree, medical research is far more important. But I know some very stubborn and down right ignorant people that refuse to fold, and others that just dont believe in the cause. Letting all of those CPU cycles go unused seems like a waste, and since they dont want to let them go to folding, I thought might as well try to get them to let the cycles go on to something they might have interest in, like SETI etc. Since I just found this I thought I'd post it for those not interested in F@H to maybe get their cycles, and for those who DC already, a little news on the DC front.

pageian, I know what you mean. Just think of all the computer users in the world who do not run a DC client of any kind. All the uninformed who buy the latest and greatest Dell computers with their 3GHz P4s just oblivious to the research being done in the homes of every day people. To have their cycles would be a truely miraculous thing. Just imagine how far science would go if all those processors were put to use. Just imagine how far ahead of the Aussies we would go, if they folded for our team.

 

[PPatBoyd]

well, when the F@H project ends we could do this. and then we could do SETI. and then whatever other useless DC project there is