Idle computers are a researcher’s dream – Linking the machines together turns them into a supercomputer

Boise State University Professor Elisa Barney Smith decided to put about 80 computers that were sitting idle in Boise State’s classrooms to work on a series of demanding mathematical problems. IT system administrator Angus McDonald (in background) set up the computing network. He and Barney Smith say it’s an efficient and inexpensive way to get the power of a supercomputer.

Julie Howard
The Idaho Statesman | Edition Date: 07-02-2004

http://www.idahostatesman.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040702/NEWS0202/407020302

Computers don’t need to be fed, rested or paid by the hour.

For Boise State University professor Elisa Barney Smith, that makes them the perfect research assistants.

And after learning about the growing popularity of "grid computing" — a way of harnessing idle desktop computers to work on assigned tasks — Barney Smith launched a project to give BSU its own grid computer network.

So far, nearly 100 classroom computers at BSU are on the grid, which uses Condor, a program that effectively creates a supercomputer. That means when students aren’t using the desktops, the computers automatically come alive to compute complicated research equations.

"It gives me access to a more powerful computer setup so I can more quickly complete a research job," said Barney Smith. "There are classrooms here with 30 computers, and they’re used maybe eight hours a day. We can use the computers the other 16 hours."

The project evolved out of a collaboration with Micron Technology, which launched its own computing grid in 2001.

Micron now has several thousand computers on a grid. The same computers that are used by its corporate personnel in Boise during the day automatically rev up for their night-shift job of running programs for memory chip designs and quality control procedures.

"Any kind of task that can be broken into independent steps can be done on a grid," said Brooklin Gore, who researches and implements advanced computing technology for Micron. "Our goal is to have all administrative PCs on the grid by the end of the year."

***************

How you can be part of a grid computing project

You can volunteer your own home computer for use in grid computing research.
Various groups and universities rely on grid computing for work on everything from the search for extraterrestrial life to a cure for cancer.
SETI, or the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, is a scientific effort sponsored in part by University of California, Berkeley, seeking to determine if there is intelligent life outside Earth. The project involves downloading a screensaver that receives data from the SETI program, analyzes it, and then automatically sends results back.
The screensaver only goes into action when the owner isn’t using the computer.
For information, go online to http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley .edu/

Related Links

* Tabor Communications Inc. http://www.gridtoday.com

* The Condor Project http://www.cs.wisc.edu/condor

* Global Grid Forum http://www.ggf.org

* SETI@home http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/

* The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. http://www.ewh.ieee.org/r6/boise/

***************

Gore gave Barney Smith the idea for doing a grid on campus and has acted in an advisory capacity to get the BSU system operating. He said Micron has benefitted from using the downtime of its desktop computers.

"Grid computing allows you to do things faster and cheaper," he said, explaining that his own desktop computer automatically turns to other tasks each time he leaves his desk for lunch or a meeting.

Daryl Macomb, an assistant professor in physics at BSU, plans to use the new grid later this summer for research he’s doing on astronomical bodies called pulsars. He is choosing to use the new Condor system, which cost a total of $10,000 to implement, instead of the university’s new $400,000 supercomputer.

"The supercomputer is not as easily accessible, and programming it is a little more difficult for what I want to do with this research," said Macomb, adding that the Condor grid will save time in analyzing large quantities of data.

Angus McDonald, a systems administrator at BSU, set up the university’s new computing grid and has also scavenged some cast-off computers to add to the grid, assembling them on a rack in his office. He says that as more professors hear about the grid, there will be more demand for it, and hundreds more computers will be added to the system.

"It remains to be seen what types of disciplines will use it," McDonald said, adding that the most likely users will be in engineering and physics, but could also come from biology and geology. "It’s quite easy to use."

Barney Smith plans to use it for her research on how to get optical character recognition systems to recognize faded or blurred copies or faxes. That would ultimately allow easier conversion of printed materials to digital form, she said.

The computing grid is being used to process computations related to the research, with each round of testing requiring 200 hours of computer time.

Because there are nearly 100 computers on the grid, the computing time is cut to a few hours, said Barney Smith.

Because of the attractive cost of better utilizing existing equipment, putting idled computers to work is gaining popularity in the private sector, said Micron’s Gore.

"The technology has been used in academia and research labs in earnest (for the past three or four years), and it’s just starting to become popular for businesses," he said, adding that the technology and bioscience industries have the most need for such computing power.

Gore is spearheading a group that plans to bring a seminar to Boise this fall to discuss grid computing technologies. The seminar will be sponsored by the local chapter of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, known as IEEE, said Gore.

"I’m just excited to see more people use the technology in the community," he said.