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DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION
FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY /
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Applications:
ACCESS GRID TOOLKIT 2.0 CREATES
SWELL OF GRID INTEREST
For Access Grid (AG) users who have experienced the rich collaborations
enabled by AG 1.X, the release of Access Grid Toolkit 2.0 has been icing on
the cake. Evidenced at the recent AG Development sessions held outside of
Chicago, the interest and demand for collaborative tools continues to drive
development of Grid applications allowing distributed resources to work
together seamlessly.
"The new AG 2.0 software is quickly becoming the front door to the Grid --
triggering increasing waves of deployment and usage beyond the traditional
high-performance community of this infrastructure" noted Michael Papka, deputy
director of Futures Lab at Argonne National Laboratory, operated by the
University of Chicago.
A significant upgrade of AG 1, the new toolkit includes streamlined user
interfaces, robust middleware and services that enable participants to share
experiences through advanced media capabilities like high quality video and
multiple layered streaming. AG 2.0 incorporates the lessons learned from a
broad array of user experiences with AG 1, fixes bugs associated with AG 1 and
dramatically improves usability across the broad spectrum of existing and
potential members of the AG community.
The primary goals of AG 2.0 are to:
- improve and integrate more tightly the core functionality of AG 1
- incorporate the latest advances in Grid computing technology including GSI
2.0 (security) and Globus IO (data transfer and socket security)
- support plug-in applications including application services furnishing
access to third-party resources (e.g., data storage and scheduling) that are
not part of a venue or node and shared applications providing collaborative
functionality and tools like shared presentation and image viewers, and allow
a wider range of client platforms.
Users worldwide have documented positive feedback regarding the increased
usability of AG 2.0. The most remarked upon improvement is the flexible
functionality across a broad range of client platforms from an advanced node
with tiled display and multiple video streams to a minimal node with compact
display and a single video stream. Additionally, the accommodation of diverse
node types -- room, desktop and laptop -- greatly enhances the usability and
context for usage, making AG 2.0 extremely "user-friendly."
"Access Grid 2.0 software hides the computer science so the actual science
can
be discussed and done" confirmed Dave Semeraro, associate director of
visualization for the Visualization and Virtual Environments Group at
NCSA/University of Illinois, representing a key AG 2.0 "early adopter"
community.
General Atomics has been using AG 2.0 as part of the Fusion Collaboratory
(funded by the U.S. Department of Energy), and deployed AG 2.0 at three main
magnetic fusion experimental sites in the United States earlier this year.
David P. Schissel, principal investigator, noted, "AG 2.0 allowed a level
of
detailed scientific interaction by remote participants that previously was not
possible."
GA will use the Access Grid and AG 2.0 to support the Cy04 experimental
campaigns -- providing critical value-add to the entire initiative.
Schissel explained further, "The Access Grid systems will allow a larger
number of off-site scientists to contribute in real time to the experiment.
First, this new capability saves valuable research funds that would be spent
on travel. Secondly, by using the AG, scientists and students who would not
have otherwise been able to engage due to restricted budgets, will now
participate and contribute. Thus, the quality of magnetic fusion research will
be raised and understanding will be accelerated."
Using AG 2.0, users can operate personal or shared nodes. Each user has
access
to other users and the capability of carrying around data, storing it at a
venue and/or sharing it and otherwise collaborating with other users. Toolkit
2.0 presents a single, unified interface that is user-friendly and identifies
problems in a clear and focused manner. It also enhances the user experience
by providing a dedicated Virtual Venue client and integrated node management.
It even addresses the challenge of integrated network failure recovery.
Equally exciting to the Grid user community is the potential for near-term
development of additional AG 2.0 enhancements via open-source software
development. Planned enhancements include integrating more Grid computing
capabilities, expanding further the range of node platforms, incorporating
additional application services, supporting richer collaborative tools and
developing network services.
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