Physics Experiment Could Spawn Permanent Computing Grid

The world´s biggest physics experiment starts in May 2008. To support it, the world´s biggest computing experiment has already begun. The payoffs could reach far beyond physics. The epicenter for both experiments is the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland. There, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will smash protons together with such force that it could release showers of subatomic particles that haven´t existed since the big bang. Sophisticated detectors will catch those particles and release a corresponding flood of data-some 15 Pbytes a year-which scientists will have to painstakingly compare to similar volumes of simulation data before they can make new discoveries. For five years, scientists and engineers have been building the computing grid that will make it possible. When all that data floods the LHC computing grid (LCG) for the first time, not only will physicists be watching but also scientists in other disciplines who hope to run their own super-sized experiments in the future. Now CERN and others are working to organize a permanent computing grid to support them all.