University of Houston Computing Support Status & Future Possibilities for ALICE

1. University of HoustonComputing Support Status & Future Possibilities for ALICE Larry Pinsky University of Houston L. Pinsky--University of Houston

2. Some History (TLC2 CACDS) • The Texas Learning and Computation Center’s (TLC2) former director was Prof. Lennart Johnsson, and under his guidance UH provided a substantial fraction of the resources to support the ALICE-USA contributions to the computing needs of the LHC Preparation “Data Challenges” with no funding from external sources (DOE). • In the final preparations for LHC operation, the decision was made to provide the total DOE portion of the US contribution to ALICE Computing via NERSC and LLNL. • The proposed cost of a funded UH contribution was the lowest, except for the LLNL proposal (which was limited to ~ 33% of the total requirement). • TLC2 has been subsumed within the new Center for Advanced Computing and Data Systems, now directed by Prof. Barbara Chapmen (Who is a member of the DOE Office of Sceince’s Committee for Advanced Scientific Computing) L. Pinsky--University of Houston

3. Recognition of TLC2’s Performance by the LGC • TLC2 continued to supply access to computing resources until the support for Itanium use was discontinued by ALICE Offline in 2009?? • The LHC Grid Committee (LGC—on which I served as the one of the ALICE representatives), Formally recognized TLC2 as an “Exemplary Tier 2 Facility” during the pre-startup data challenges in terms of the quality and consistency of the support supplied… L. Pinsky--University of Houston

4. Current Status • The Prior TLC2 facilities and the former UH High Performance Computing Center, have been combined under the new Center for Scientific Computing and Data Systems. • A new Computing facility is to be added to the present facilities, which would be able to house any reasonable ALICE-USA computing requirements. • Substantial investments in on-campus computing resources for use by the petroleum industry will be a major contributor. L. Pinsky--University of Houston

5. Projected Costs… • If we assume a contribution in units of 200 cores with 60-70 TB of storage… • The current estimate is that funding support in the amount of ~$80k per such units, (presumed 3-5 year lifecycle). ($600k for 1500 cores + 1 PB) • In other units, ($20k / Tflop) + Storage for current peak performance… • To host a full Tier-2 site at UH, the annual cost for manpower with overhead would be ~$250k L. Pinsky--University of Houston

6. Where do we go from here? • The University of Houston has been and is both capable and interested in supporting ALICE-USA Computing. • If there is a role for us to play, either as a replacement for LLNL, or as a “Gap-Filler,” UH is ready to respond. • We would also be willing to use our own resources to provide peak requirement breathing room for any dedicated ALICE-USA installation. • The UH-ALICE group is now 3 faculty + 3 Post Docs (+ Graduate Students), and we are in the process of hiring a theorist. L. Pinsky--University of Houston

7. O2 Possibilities • With 6 Ph.D.’s + Students, we have an interest in CWG 6, 7 & 8… • In addition, we have strong links to our Computer Science Department in recruiting Ph.D. students to work on GPU optimization. (They are hungry for “real” projects, and the cost is simply graduate student stipends… L. Pinsky--University of Houston

8. Some “Threads” • One of the current CERN-based Post-Docs is the author of the GEANT4 charge deposition in Si sensors, and we are leading the theory effort for improving these routines.. • There are current UH CS students and their advisors heavily involved in compiler development for GPUs… L. Pinsky--University of Houston