The image you are viewing is a visualization of the Universe as it condenses around fluctuations in the density of dark and ordinary matter and is the result of a collaboration between Argonne National Laboratory and the San Diego Supercomputer Center/University of California, San Diego. During the Supercomputing 2009 conference in Portland, OR, (SC09) visualizations of a 4096^3 data volume were streamed from Eureka, the graphics cluster at Argonne (see related article below), over ESnet, filling a 10Gb/s network link, to an OptiPortal in the SDSC booth on the exhibit floor. The demonstration was part of an effort to establish end-to-end workflows that leverage high-performance computing and visualization resources, high-speed networks, and advanced displays spread across the country.

As one can imagine this is an exciting development for researchers using large working data sets to answer some of the most complex questions facing researchers today. "As a team, we were able to link institutions across the country and leverage high performance computing, visualization resources, high speed networks and advanced displays in real-time,” said Joe Insley, principal software developer at Argonne. “But what was really wonderful was seeing the scientists get excited about the possibilities that this will enable.”

Networking advances make it feasible to move large amounts of data from the location where it was computed to specialized visualization resources where it can be rendered into images. However, the scientists who need to analyze this data often live and work far from both supercomputing and rendering clusters. It is vital that the renderings be brought to the scientist.

To see the subtle details in the data and make full use of the visualizations, high-quality images are also required. New vl3 enhancements allow researchers to stream hi-res images created on graphics clusters to a remote cluster driving a high-resolution tiled display.

This simulation follows the growth of density perturbations in both gas and dark matter components in a volume 1 billion light years on a side beginning shortly after the Big Bang and evolved to half the present age of the universe. It calculates the gravitational clumping of intergalactic gas and dark matter modeled using a computational grid of 64 billion cells and 64 billion dark matter particles. The simulation uses a computational grid of 4096^3 cells and took over 4,000,000 CPU hours to complete.

Source Article: Argonne streaming visualization sends images across the world

Related Article; Leading-edge data analytics and visualization enable breakthrough science on Argonne's Blue Gene/P

About Argonne National Laboratory

Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nation's first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance America 's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.