The GRID

The successor to the World Wide Web is on its way

Particle Physics and computing developments often go hand in hand and that is particularly true at the moment when scientists from the UK’s GridPP project are working hard to develop a working computing Grid to handle the data deluge from the next generation of experiments.

The World Wide Web was invented at CERN as a way of sharing large amounts of experimental data all around the world. But the next experiment to run at CERN, the Large Hadron Collider scheduled to start in 2007, will produce such enormous volumes of information that the actual processing will have to be shared. This is done using a ‘Grid’ which works a bit like the electricity grid – when you plug in your PC you don’t know or care which power station the electricity is coming from. In a computing grid, you set your computer a problem and it gets help to process it from other computers on the grid – but you don’t need to know where they are.

In October 2005, the Grid concept took a huge leap forwards. Whilst several Grids now exist, each is regulated separately but this month, the International Grid Trust Federation has been set up to allow a single identification system for Grid users. This will take the Grid from a localised system (all be it across continents in some cases) to a truly global concept like the World Wide Web.

For full details see http://www.cclrc.ac.uk/Activity/News2005;SECTION=9147