Buddy can you spare 100,000,000 hours?
Mon 23 Feb 2009
This month the UK and Ireland passed two major milestones. One was the contribution of over 100,000,000 computing hours to the worldwide Grid by the sites around the UK and Ireland. The other was all 23 sites within the federation being up and fully available with almost 19,000 CPUs accessible across the region to international researchers.
The 100,000,000 hours contributed in the last 5 years is equivalent to the amount of work one PC could complete in 11,400 years. Below is the graph which demonstrates not only this massive contribution but also the amazing increase in productivity in the last year. 12 months ago the UK had only contributed 50,000,000 hours to the Grid. However due to the collaboration acquiring newer and better kit, 2008 saw the numbers posted last year outstripping the previous 4.
While these numbers are impressive it is the second note worthy event that really shows the strength of the people behind the Grid. With the LHC turn on now scheduled for September this year, the picture below showing green across the board is a testament to the work that goes on at all the sites in the UK and Ireland in preparation. The sites not only provide the computer power but ensure that it is available when needed 24/7 and this is what is needed when the serious data comes flooding in from the LHC switch on.
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