PVM Grids to Self-assembling Virtual Machines

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) leads two of the five big Genomes-to-Life projects funded in the USA. As a part of these projects researchers at ORNL have been using PVM to build a computational biology grid that spans the USA. This talk will describe this effort, how it is built, and the unique features in PVM that led the researchers to choose PVM as their framework. The computations such as parallel BLAST are run on individual supercomputers or clusters within this P&P grid and are themselves written in PVM to exploit PVM’s fault tolerant capabilities. We will then describe our recent progress in building an even more adaptable distributed virtual machines package called Harness. The Harness project includes research on a scalable, selfadapting cote called H2O, and research on fault tolerant MPI. Harness software framework provides parallel software “plug-ins” that adapts the run-time system to changing application needs in real time. This past year, we have demonstrated Harness’ ability to self-assemble into a virtual machine specifically tailored for particular applications. Finally, we will describe DOE’s plan to create a National Leadership Computing Facility, which will house a 100 TF Cray X2 system, and a Cray Red Storm at ORNL, and an IBM Blue Gene system at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL). We will describe the scientific missions of this facility and the new concept of “computational end stations” being pioneered by the Facility. 1 Genomics Grid built on PVM The United States Department of Energy (DOE) has embarked on an ambitious computational biology program called Genomes-to-Life. The program is using DNA sequences from microbes and higher organisms, for systematically tackling questions about the molecular machines and regulatory pathways of living systems. Advanced technological and computational resources are being employed to identify and understand the underlying mechanisms that enable living organisms to develop and survive under a wide variety of environmental conditions. ORNL is a leader in two of the five Genomes-to-Life centers. As part of this effort ONRL is building a Genomics Computational Grid across the U.S. connecting ORNL, ANL, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The software being deployed is called The Genome Channel. The Genome Channel is a