National Science Foundation's XSEDE

National Science Foundation's XSEDE is a National Science Foundation-funded project that provides a collection of integrated advanced digital resources and services to the United States research community, including supercomputers, data storage systems, and high-speed networks like Internet2 and ESnet. The project involves partnerships with various universities and research institutions, such as University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Texas at Austin, and Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, to provide computational science and data science resources. XSEDE also collaborates with other National Science Foundation-funded projects, including Open Science Grid and Cyberinfrastructure.

Introduction to XSEDE

The XSEDE project is designed to support a wide range of scientific research fields, including astrophysics, climate science, and genomics, by providing access to advanced computing and data analysis resources. XSEDE users include researchers from universities and institutions such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and Los Alamos National Laboratory, as well as scientists from organizations like National Aeronautics and Space Administration and National Institutes of Health. The project also provides training and support for users, including workshops and tutorials on high-performance computing and data management, in collaboration with organizations like Supercomputing Conference and International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis.

History and Development

The XSEDE project was established in 2011 as a successor to the TeraGrid project, which was a National Science Foundation-funded grid computing project that operated from 2001 to 2011. The XSEDE project was developed in collaboration with various partners, including University of Chicago, University of California, San Diego, and National Center for Supercomputing Applications, to provide a more comprehensive and integrated set of digital resources and services to the research community. The project has undergone several upgrades and expansions since its inception, including the addition of new supercomputers and data storage systems, and the development of new services and tools for users, such as Globus and OpenStack.

Architecture and Infrastructure

The XSEDE project consists of a distributed architecture that includes multiple supercomputers, data storage systems, and high-speed networks located at various sites across the United States. The project uses a federation model to integrate these resources and provide a single, unified interface for users, using standards and protocols like OpenID Connect and SAML. XSEDE also provides a range of services and tools to support users, including job scheduling systems like Slurm Workload Manager and Torque, data management systems like iRODS and Globus, and visualization tools like ParaView and VisIt.

Services and Resources

XSEDE provides a wide range of services and resources to support researchers and scientists, including consulting and training services, software and tools for data analysis and visualization, and access to supercomputers and data storage systems. The project also provides support for research communities and collaborations, including workshops and meetings to facilitate knowledge sharing and collaboration, in partnership with organizations like Association for Computing Machinery and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. XSEDE users can access these resources and services through a web portal or command-line interface, using authentication mechanisms like Shibboleth and OAuth.

User Community and Support

The XSEDE project has a large and diverse user community, including researchers and scientists from universities, institutions, and organizations like Harvard University, California Institute of Technology, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The project provides a range of support services to help users get started with XSEDE, including tutorials and workshops on high-performance computing and data management, as well as online documentation and user forums, in collaboration with organizations like Research Data Alliance and International Council for Science. XSEDE also has a user advisory committee that provides feedback and guidance on the development of new services and resources, including representatives from organizations like American Physical Society and American Chemical Society.

Research and Impact

The XSEDE project has enabled a wide range of scientific research and discovery, including simulations of climate change and weather patterns, analyses of genomic data and protein structures, and visualizations of astrophysical phenomena and materials science data. XSEDE users have published numerous research papers and articles in top-tier journals like Nature, Science, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and have presented their research at conferences like Supercomputing Conference and International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis. The project has also had a significant impact on education and training, providing opportunities for students and postdoctoral researchers to develop skills in high-performance computing and data science, in partnership with organizations like National Center for Women & Information Technology and Computing Research Association. Category:Scientific organizations