Utilizing Supercomputer Power from Your Desktop

Abstract

Potentially unlimited computing power is provided today by computing facilities available via the Internet. Unfortunately, the facilities exhibit a variety of non-uniform interfaces to the users. Each facility has its own operating system, its own policy with respect to access and accounting, its own set of tools, and its own data. To utilize the computing power, a user has to select an appropriate facility, and has to know how to access and operate the facility, which tools to use, what options to provide for these tools, how to execute tools, how to submit a job for execution, etc..

The Superbroker infrastructure gives easy access to HPCN facilities in the Netherlands through a web browser, thereby taking care of the networking and system details. The user is provided with a single working environment, which gives easy access to the available, usually remote resources as if they were present on a single computer (a “metacomputer”). Using the desktop’s native software only, the user can easily browse the working environment, start tools, and submit jobs using point-and-click and drag-and-drop operations. The working environment may be tailored for particular end users and application areas. This paper presents the design and implementation of the infrastructure.