On the Easy Use of Scientific Computing Services for Large Scale Linear Algebra and Parallel Decision Making with the P-Grade Portal

International audienceScientific research is becoming increasingly dependent on the large-scale analysis of data using distributed computing infrastructures (Grid, cloud, GPU, etc.). Scientific computing (Petitet et al. 1999) aims at constructing mathematical models and numerical solution techniques for solving problems arising in science and engineering. In this paper, we describe the services of an integrated portal based on the P-Grade (Parallel Grid Run-time and Application Development Environment) portal (http://www.p-grade.hu) that enables the solution of large-scale linear systems of equations using direct solvers, makes easier the use of parallel block iterative algorithm and provides an interface for parallel decision making algorithms. The ultimate goal is to develop a single sign on integrated multi-service environment providing an easy access to different kind of mathematical calculations and algorithms to be performed on hybrid distributed computing infrastructures combining the benefits of large clusters, Grid or cloud, when needed

A grid-aware web portal with advanced service trading for linear algebra calculations

International audienceDue to the rapid growth of the Internet, there has been a rising interest in using the Web as an interface to develop various applications over computational Grid environments. The purpose of this work is to develop a Grid-aware Web interface for linear algebra tasks with advanced service trading. Developing efficient and portable codes, requires users to face parallel computing and programming and to make use of different standard libraries, such as the BLAS [1], LAPACK [2] and ScaLAPACK [3] in order to solve computational tasks related to linear algebra. For this purpose, a scientific computing environment based on a Web interface is described that allows users to perform their linear algebra tasks without explicitly calling the above mentioned libraries and softwarep tools, as well as without installing any piece of software on local computers: users enter algebraic formula (such as in Matlab or Scilab [4]) that are evaluated for determining the combinations of services answering the user request. Services are then executed locally or over the Grid using the Distributed Interactive Engineering Toolbox (DIET) [5] middleware