Objective: Create an Internet-accessible service to provide an on-line reference index for the emerging interdisciplinary field of petaFLOPS computing. Such a service would provide a single source for references to all active work in technology, architecture, system software, and applications.
Approach: Develop a World Wide Web (WWW)-based hyperlink index. This on-line reference index will include pointers to related work posted on the Internet across the country, maintain local archives of material not available electronically elsewhere, and provide short abstracts of all relevant material. Identify editors from the research community to manage reference sources from specific disciplines, including device technology, parallel architecture, scalable applications and algorithms, and system software.
Accomplishments: The PETA Home Page has been established, and resources have been applied to maintain it. Prof. Peter Kogge of the University of Notre Dame and Dr. Rick Stevens of Argonne National Laboratory are the Senior Editors, with Dr. Thomas Sterling of CESDIS serving as Editor-in-Chief. All of the on-line information developed during the preceeding two years in this area has been linked to PETA. The petaflops community has embraced PETA as an important tool in furthering the advance of this emerging discipline.
Significance The path to petaFLOPS-scale computing is an uncertain one and may ultimately rely on a mix of technologies not fully appreciated for their potential at this time. Workers in diverse fields, unfamiliar with each other's contributions or requirements, may relate their work through the broader context provided by PETA. The hierarchy of information accessible via PETA is dynamic and evolving on a continuous basis reflecting the expanding range of knowledge and related disciplines associated with petaFLOPS computing.
Status/Plans: PETA is operational and accessible via the WWW. It is populated with extensive links to documentation of related interest and directly with material of major importance to the petaFLOPS community. Additional editors will be sought to oversee the increasing number of relevant topic domains and to accelerate the building of this important on-line reference index.
Point of Contact:
Dr. Thomas Sterling
Center of Excellence in Space Data and Information Sciences (CESDIS)
Goddard Space Flight Center
tron@chesapeake.gsfc.nasa.gov
301-286-2757