Previously, I posted about the Large Hadron Collider (here and here) and how upon completion it became the most complex machine ever built by mankind. The LHC was successfully tested just a few weeks ago, and despite some minor setbacks recently is set to deliver a treasure trove of information to researchers about the earliest moments of the universe over the next year.
As part of this research, and to enable the analysis of huge, huge amounts of data, a collaborative approach has been taken to create a virtual computer capable of this task. This analysis will be mankind’s biggest data challenge, and on October 3rd the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid came online, becoming the largest computer grid in the world. This grid is comprised of 140 computer centers in 33 countries and will have the capability of processing, analyzing, and managing over 15 million gigabytes of information from the LHC each year.
This collaborative, networked approach not only makes this complex analysis possible, but it allows a diversity of research groups globally to participate and benefit from the information generated by the LHC experiments.
This networked grid of computers would seem to align with my Network is The Computer post from a few weeks ago.
More information at Brookhaven National Laboratories.
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