Abstract
The OptIPuter project (optiputer.net) is a “powerful distributed cyber-infrastructure that supports data-intensive scientific research and collaboration” and is led by the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, CAL(IT)2 (calit2.net). The primary objective of this project is to closely couple powerful computing, data and display devices by computer networks. This large US project has been a major vehicle for tuning network performance, to support real-time applications. Its user interface, the so-called OptiPortals are the most powerful computer displays available, with a 200 Mega-pixel display installed at UCSD. In late 2007, we constructed one of the first OptiPortal displays in Australia, using an array of 20 tiled LCD monitors, driven by a PC graphics cluster and network manager. The display is 7680 x 6000 pixels (46 Mpixels), so can natively display multiple images from modern CCD cameras (EM, satellites, etc), while users with ordinary desktops can only view thumbnail images. Current applications include GIS studies of land use, with the display of high definition satellite imagery of northern Queensland now at native resolution.
The Scalable Adaptive Graphics Environment (SAGE) software, developed by the Electronic Visualization Lab (EVL), is an API designed for showing images, movies and remote desktops on the display. SAGE coordinates and displays multiple incoming streams of computer graphics on the display and supports collaborative visualisation environments. The computer cluster has been rebuilt to also use the Rocks 4.3 software and now supports the CGLX (Cluster GLX) environment,
We will report on our work to extend SAGE so that the display can show native HD video streaming from the network; and on improvements to the user interface. Work currently underway includes the integration of 3-rd party (mostly open source) software applications into the SAGE environment: these include web browsers, Earth3D, and scientific visulisation software (vtk, etc).
A critical requirement of the Optiputer project is access to good and reliable network performance, to ensure real-time results. Test measurements using Network Diagnostic Tool (NDT) servers typically measured speeds in the range of 3-8 Mbps at Australian university sites, with 5Mbps being a common result. These kinds of projects motivate more careful network tuning to deliver x10, and then x 100, improvements in performance. A 5x3 OptiPortal will be on show at QuestNet-2008.
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Bio
Bernard Pailthorpe is Professor of Computational Science at UQ and CEO of Qld. Cyberinfrastructure (QCIF. Ltd.). He has built up advanced computing research infrastructure over nearly two decades. In 1992 he established Sydney VisLab as a component of the national advanced computing infrastructure, with one of the first labs at the ATP in 1995. He was a member of the team that presented to PMSEC in Dec’94, leading to the establishment of APAC.
During 1999-2000 he was a Director of the San Diego Supercomputer Center at UCSD. There he directed the Interaction Environments research program for the 50-member NSF-funded NPACI consortium, which produced state-of-the-art algorithms and software systems for the analysis of the largest experimental data sets and simulation results. While at UCSD he also was involved in the early planning of CalIT2 and has continued collaborations.
He moved to UQ in 2003; and became CEO of the Queensland’s advanced computing partnership (then QPSF, now QCIF); and has twice won its funding renewals. Recently he was closely involved in establishing the new NCRIS 5.16 Platforms for Collaboration capability
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