computer science

GridPP

GridPP is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand GridPP rather than just read about it. In short: GridPP is a collaboration of particle physicists and computer scientists from the United Kingdom and CERN. They manage and maintain a distributed computing grid across the UK with the primary aim of providing resources to particle physicists working on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments at CERN.

Key takeaways

GridPP belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect GridPP to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of GridPP from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

GridPP is a collaboration of particle physicists and computer scientists from the United Kingdom and CERN. They manage and maintain a distributed computing grid across the UK with the primary aim of providing resources to particle physicists working on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments at CERN. They are funded by the UK's Science and Technology Facilities Council. The collaboration oversees a major computing facility called the Tier1 at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) along with the four Tier 2 organisations of ScotGrid, NorthGrid, SouthGrid and LondonGrid (formerly LT2). The Tier 2s are geographically distributed and are composed of computing clusters at multiple institutes. As of 2012 the GridPP infrastructure spans 18 UK institutions and is major partner in the UK's National Grid Initiative as a part of the European Grid Infrastructure.

Background The original GridPP plan was drawn up in late 2000 to provide the UK's contribution to the LHC Computing Grid and the EuropeanDataGrid project (now the European Grid Infrastructure). The drive behind these projects was to provide researchers working on the LHC experiments with suitable computing resources and to extend the use of the technology to other communities. The first GridPP proposal was accepted by PPARC, at the time the UK funding council responsible for funding particle physics related projects, and the collaboration officially began on 1 September 2001 with £17m of funding. During this first phase of GridPP (2001 to 2004) the collaboration built the UK testbed, a working prototype for a grid that was linked to other similar systems around the world. In preparation for its use as a production infrastructure it analysed real data from a wide variety of experiments being run around the world in different institutions. In 2004 it was extended until September 2007 to bring it up to the proposed LHC switch on date. By 2007 GridPP was a fully functioning production service but the LHC switch on was still a year away so in September 2007 it received a further extension from STFC, receiving £30m of funding until March 2011.

Current state of the project GridPP is in its fourth phase (2011–2014) having received more funding from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) to support the LHC experiments and other users. In late 2011 the project is providing over 29,000 CPUs and 25,000TB of storage to the worldwide grid infrastructure.

Members All of the UK universities and institutions with researchers working on the LHC are members. As of 2011 the list is as follows:

ScotGrid ScotGrid is based across 3 main sites and primarily supports on-going research within the field of Particle Physics. The entire environment is monitored, maintained and developed by dedicated teams at each site, to ensure a fully operational system is available to the end user communities.

Durham University University of Edinburgh University of Glasgow

NorthGrid Lancaster University University of Liverpool University of Manchester University of Sheffield

SouthGrid University of Birmingham University of Bristol University of Cambridge The Rutherford Appleton Laboratory University of Oxford University of Sussex

LondonGrid LondonGrid is a joint collaboration of 5 institutes in the London region to provide high performance computing resources to the high energy physics community.

Brunel University, West London Imperial College London Queen Mary, University of London Royal Holloway, University of London

Research supported by GridPP

Currently supported GridPP supports many disciplines and projects. This is a list of the different experiments or projects that actively use GridPP resources.

LHC experiments GridPP was originally created to support the experiments based at CERN using the LHC. The 4 main experiments supported are:

ALICE ATLAS CMS LHCb

High energy physics Alongside the experiments at the LHC GridPP also supports other international high energy physics experiments. These include:

CLIC MICE SNO+ SuperB T2K NA62 experiment at CERN

Physics PhenoGrid a UK project investigating Phenomenology UKQCD — a UK project investigating Quantum Chromodynamics ITER

Other disciplines GridPP, through the European Grid Infrastructure and its own efforts, supports many non-physics research disciplines.

The MoSSaiC project, investigating the management of landslide hazards in the Tropics The UK's National eInfrastructure for Social Simulation's GENESIS project which uses the grid infrastructure to simulate a populations in cities and regions in-silico. The ENROLLER providing language and literature researchers access to text collections and computing resources.

Previously supported

Other disciplines WISDOM a French-based project looking at cures for avian flu and malaria. PEGASUS – Particle Physicists Engagement with Grids: A Socio-technical Usability Study, a sociology study of the collaboration carried out by the London School of Economics which resulted in a framework of qualifying guidance for others engaged in developed grids as well as 15 papers, 4 posters and used in 3 MSc dissertations. Econophysica – A small company who worked with researchers at Queen Mary, University of London looking at mathematical models for commodity trading. The work with GridPP received funding from the STFC Mini PIPPS scheme to look into the feasibility of their algorithmic trading platform being deployed on the Grid.

Related projects LHC Computing Grid European Grid Infrastructure National Grid Service

References

External links Official website The UK's National Grid Initiative website

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with GridPP

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what GridPP claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to GridPP before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about GridPP ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of GridPP

In research: GridPP appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses GridPP in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: GridPP is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Academic computer network organizations, College and university associations and consortia in the United Kingdom, E-Science, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for GridPP outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study GridPP in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what GridPP means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain GridPP out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is GridPP in simple terms?

Why does GridPP matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study GridPP?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on GridPP.