CERN starts the Peta-Grid

The World LHC Computing Grid (WLCG) is the official name for a network linking computing centres around the world to help 7,000 scientists evaluate the data from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). On Friday, CERN announced that the grid was up and running, although the accelerator itself will remain offline until next spring.

The accelerator near Geneva is the biggest scientific instrument in the world and will produce vast amounts of data – roughly 15 petabytes a year. This would produce a stack of CDs 21km (13 miles) high, generated at six discs a second. To transport and move this much data, CERN has assembled the biggest computing grid in the world. The WLCG has a dedicated fibre-optic network linking 11 first-level datacentres across Europe, Asia and America, including both the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York and the Fermi National Accelerator Labs in Illinois. These two distribute the data on to approximately 140 second-level datacentres around the world.

The WLCG project leader, Ian Bird, said: "Today's result demonstrates the excellent and successful collaboration we have enjoyed with countries all over the world. Without these international partnerships, such an achievement would be impossible."

Volunteers who wish to help with the analysis can run the LHC@Home screensaver on their PCs. Based on the same BOINC platform as the massively popular SETI@Home and Folding@HOME efforts, it uses spare computer time to help crunch the numbers.

(lghp)