Kepper Nick, Ettig Ramona, Dickmann Frank, Stehr Rene, Grosveld Frank G, Wedemann Gero, Knoch Tobias A
Biophysical Genomics, Dept. Cell Biology & Genetics, Erasmus MC, GE Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Stud Health Technol Inform. 2010;159:264-71.
Especially in the life-science and the health-care sectors the huge IT requirements are imminent due to the large and complex systems to be analysed and simulated. Grid infrastructures play here a rapidly increasing role for research, diagnostics, and treatment, since they provide the necessary large-scale resources efficiently. Whereas grids were first used for huge number crunching of trivially parallelizable problems, increasingly parallel high-performance computing is required. Here, we show for the prime example of molecular dynamic simulations how the presence of large grid clusters including very fast network interconnects within grid infrastructures allows now parallel high-performance grid computing efficiently and thus combines the benefits of dedicated super-computing centres and grid infrastructures. The demands for this service class are the highest since the user group has very heterogeneous requirements: i) two to many thousands of CPUs, ii) different memory architectures, iii) huge storage capabilities, and iv) fast communication via network interconnects, are all needed in different combinations and must be considered in a highly dedicated manner to reach highest performance efficiency. Beyond, advanced and dedicated i) interaction with users, ii) the management of jobs, iii) accounting, and iv) billing, not only combines classic with parallel high-performance grid usage, but more importantly is also able to increase the efficiency of IT resource providers. Consequently, the mere "yes-we-can" becomes a huge opportunity like e.g. the life-science and health-care sectors as well as grid infrastructures by reaching higher level of resource efficiency.
特别是在生命科学和医疗保健领域，由于需要分析和模拟的系统庞大且复杂，对信息技术的巨大需求迫在眉睫。网格基础设施在研究、诊断和治疗方面发挥着越来越重要的作用，因为它们能高效地提供所需的大规模资源。虽然网格最初用于处理大量易于并行化的问题，但现在对并行高性能计算的需求日益增加。在这里，我们以分子动力学模拟为例，展示了网格基础设施中包含超高速网络互连的大型网格集群如何实现高效的并行高性能网格计算，从而将专用超级计算中心和网格基础设施的优势结合起来。对这类服务的需求最为迫切，因为用户群体的需求非常多样化：一）需要2到数千个CPU；二）需要不同的内存架构；三）需要巨大的存储能力；四）需要通过网络互连进行快速通信，所有这些需求都以不同的组合出现，并且必须以高度专业化的方式加以考虑，以实现最高的性能效率。此外，先进且专用的一）与用户的交互；二）作业管理；三）计费；四）计费，不仅将经典的与并行高性能网格使用结合起来，更重要的是还能够提高信息技术资源提供商的效率。因此，仅仅“我们能做到”就成为了一个巨大的机遇，例如通过提高资源效率水平，在生命科学和医疗保健领域以及网格基础设施方面。
