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PR15.04
23.09.2004

CHEP '04: Physicists and Industry Experts Meet in Interlaken to Discuss Future of Scientific Computing

Geneva, Switzerland 23 September 2004. Next week, CERN1 will be hosting CHEP '04, a major conference for Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics, at the Congress Centre in Interlaken (September 27 – October 1). This edition of CHEP2 will be particularly auspicious, falling in the week where CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, celebrates its fiftieth anniversary. On the day of the anniversary, September 29th, a special session on the Future of Scientific Computing will feature lead speakers from the IT industry, who will discuss the future of information technology. This topic is of paramount importance to the High Energy Physics community, which is continually pushing the envelope for scientific computing applications, and currently leading the development of Grid computing for science.

Together with partner institutions around the world, CERN launched the first truly global computing Grid, called the LHC Computing Grid (LCG), exactly a year ago. This Grid, which is dedicated to experiments on CERN's next generation particle smasher, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), is already running in production mode, with over 7000 computers and nearly 7 Petabytes of storage distributed in some 20 countries. Similar to the World Wide Web, which was developed at CERN and first publicised at a CHEP conference 12 years ago by Tim Berners-Lee and his colleagues, Grid computing is an emerging application of the Internet with potential implications that go well beyond science. For the over 500 physicists and computer scientists who will gather at CHEP this year, the progress of the LCG will be one of the primary points of interest on the agenda.

The special industry session on the 29th of September will run from 9:00 to 12:30, and is open to the press. It will feature:

Andrew Sutherland, Vice President, Technology Solutions Oracle3 Europe, Middle East & Africa, who will argue that the evolution of computing is not slowing down yet.

Jai Menon, IBM4 Fellow and Director and Chief Technologist Storage Systems Architecture and Design, who will outline the Grand Challenges facing storage systems.

Stan Williams, Senior HP5 Fellow Director, Quantum Science Research at HP, who will provide a perspective on the evolution and revolution in the design of computers based on nanoelectronics.

John Roese, Chief Technology Officer at Enterasys Networks6, who will address the future of high speed LANs.

Dave McQueeney, Chief Technology Officer for IBM's US Federal team, who will review the technological outlook for computing from IBM's perspective.

At 16:30, a press conference will feature some of the morning speakers as well as CERN representatives, and will provide an opportunity to discuss the future of Scientific Computing with the experts. The press conference will be opened by Robert Aymar, Director General of CERN, who will describe why particle physics continues to push the envelope for all sorts of technologies, including computing. Fabiola Gianotti, a leading scientist at CERN, will summarise the computing challenges that the High Energy Physics community forsees on the 5-10 year horizon. Wolfgang von Rüden, Head of CERN's IT Department, will describe the challenges of getting Grid computing to work for the start-up of the Large Hadron Collider. Industry speakers from the morning session will summarise the main points of their talks, followed by an extended Q&A session with the press.

As well as Grid middleware, Grid deployment, Grid security and scientific applications for the Grid, CHEP '04 will address wide area networking, where CERN and Caltech have recently set records for transatlantic high-speed data transfer, as well as computer fabrics, software tools, frameworks and libraries, information systems, event processing algorithms and online computing. An industrial exhibition offers a chance to learn about the latest advances from leading providers of hardware and software. For more details see the CHEP'04 Website.

CHEP '04 is sponsored by the industrial partners of the CERN openlab for DataGrid applications, a collaboration which is testing and validating cutting-edge hardware and software solutions in CERN's demanding Grid environment. The CERN openlab partners are Enterasys, HP, IBM, Intel7 and Oracle.

Further information:
François Grey
IT Communications Team
CERN IT Department
Francois.Grey@cern.ch
+41 22 767 1483

CERN Fifty Years

1 CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, has its headquarters in Geneva. At present, its Member States are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. India, Israel, Japan, the Russian Federation, the United States of America, Turkey, the European Commission and UNESCO have observer status. CERN Council is the body in which the representatives of the 20 Member States of the Organization decide on scientific programmes and financial resources.
Technological development at CERN has given the world advances varying from contributions to medical imaging to the World Wide Web. Founded in 1954, the laboratory was one of Europe's first joint ventures and has become a shining example of international collaboration. From the original 12 signatories of the CERN convention, membership has grown to the present 20 member states.

2 CHEP is the prime conference for offline computing in the fields of high energy and nuclear physics. It takes place every 18 months and circulates between North America, Europe and Asia. CHEP '04 is also supported by INTAS, UNESCO, ICTP and Swiss International Air Lines, as well as the city of Interlaken. For more information see the CHEP'04 Website.

3 Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) is the world's largest enterprise software company. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates.

4 IBM is the world's largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. Drawing on resources from across IBM and key IBM Business Partners, IBM offers a wide range of services, solutions and technologies that enable customers, large and small, to take full advantage of the new era of e-business.

5 HP is a leading global provider of products, technologies, solutions and services to consumers and businesses. The company's offerings span IT infrastructure, personal computing and access devices, global services and imaging and printing. HP completed its merger transaction involving Compaq Computer Corp. on May 3, 2002.

6 Enterasys Networks is a leading worldwide provider of broadline intelligent data networking infrastructures for enterprise-class customers. Enterasys' networking hardware and software offerings deliver the innovative security, availability and mobility solutions required by Global 2000 organizations coupled with the industry's strongest service and support.

7 Intel, the world's largest chip maker, is also a leading manufacturer of computer, networking and communications products.