DOE funds storage project - Storage Technology Magazine

"It's beyond daunting," says Gary Grider, computer scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, of the challenge facing the new Petascale Data Storage Institute (PDSI).

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded a five-year, $11 million grant to the PDSI to find ways to manage the torrent of data produced by next-generation supercomputers, modeling phenomena such as global weather and nuclear stockpile safety.

"They'll require up to hundreds of thousands of magnetic hard disks to handle the data required to run these simulations," says Garth Gibson, associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

But to get meaningful results, the supercomputers must run for months without downtime, says Grider.

The PDSI is working with vendors to develop "self-star" systems--software-based techniques for automatically managing relationships between supercomputers and storage. "Think of computers fixing computers," says Gibson.

--Jo Maitland

    Requires Free Membership to View

    When you register for SearchStorage.com, you’ll also receive targeted emails from my team of award-winning editorial writers. Our goal is to keep you informed on the hottest topics, the latest news and the biggest challenges you face as a storage professional today.

    Rich Castagna, Editorial Director

    By submitting your registration information to SearchStorage.com you agree to receive email communications from TechTarget and TechTarget partners. We encourage you to read our Privacy Policy which contains important disclosures about how we collect and use your registration and other information. If you reside outside of the United States, by submitting this registration information you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States. Your use of SearchStorage.com is governed by our Terms of Use. You may contact us at webmaster@TechTarget.com.

This was first published in November 2006