CSAR Bulletin issued in November 2003

Withdrawal of turing service

This is a reminder that Turing is to be retired from service on 31st December 2003.

Most consortia are already using alternative CSAR systems, but we would like to ensure that all users have sufficient time to port their codes and data before Turing is finally switched off.

We urge all Turing users to consider what steps need to be performed to ensure a smooth transition to alternative systems. In particular, users of Turing should ensure that they have moved their data to a local machine or another CSAR system by 31st December. PIs should also ensure that they have traded their resources on Turing by this date.

CSAR staff will be happy to assist in porting and optimising codes for use on Green and/or Newton.

Please contact CSAR if you would like any assistance or have any queries about the transfer of your code or data.

CSAR User Survey 2003

The CSAR User Survey for 2003 is now available at insert link here

It is of great importance for us and for the Research Councils to receive your feedback on all aspects of the CSAR Service and we would appreciate it if you would spend a few minutes completing this on-line form.

The closing date for returns is December 12th and if you wish to submit the form anonymously you may do so. As in previous years there will be a prize draw of a bottle of single malt whisky (or an alternative) if yours is the winning entry - selected at random.

TRICEPS Wins HPC Challenge Award

Thanks to all CSAR users for your patience during the recent transatlantic experiments for the SC2003 conference. The TeraGyroid/TRICEPS (Transcontinental RealityGrids for Interactive Collaborative Exploration of Parameter Space) project led by Professor Peter Coveney of UCL won the HPC Challenge Award for "Most Innovative Data-Intensive Application".

This project had a number of scientific goals that provided the basis for intercontinental simulations and visualizations with researchers in UCL, Phoenix and Boston all monitoring the realtime visualization. These were also considered a huge success by the group.

CSAR was involved as a partner, and provided one of the most stable compute resources in the experiment. The final presentation to SC Global (over the AccessGrid) will be available via webcast in due course from the SC website to those who are interested.

The University of Manchester was also involved in wins in 2 other awards.

CSAR extends its congratulations and thanks to all those involved with the TeraGyroid experiments and to the other winners. We would also like to reiterate our thanks to those not involved in these experiments for their patience.