Grid boosts atom-smasher research
Grid boosts atom-smasher research
2008-10-06Newsfeed
A spin-off from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN is the Grid, an internet-like worldwide computer supernetwork to analyse the vast amounts of data the atom smasher will generate.
A spin-off from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN is the Grid, an internet-like worldwide computer supernetwork to analyse the vast amounts of data the atom smasher will generate.
The European Organisation for Nuclear Research network will allow 7,000 scientists in 33 countries to study data from its particle-smashing tests.
The Grid links 100,000 processors at 140 institutes worldwide, and researchers hope the collaborative effort will reveal new clues about the origins of the universe.
The LHC experiment involves firing beams of protons in opposite directions around the tunnel buried 100 metres (330 feet) below the French-Swiss border, on the outskirts of Geneva.
At full capacity the LHC will produce 600 million proton collisions per second, producing data 40 million times per second.
These will be filtered down in the four massive subterranean detectors - the largest of which is the size of a five-storey building - to 100 collisions of interest per second.
CERN has only 10% of the computing capacity needed for the LHC experiment, which will allow scientists to observe sub-atomic particles and probe the nature of gravity and matter. The Grid will provide the rest.
Copyright © The Press Association 2008
