Society for scientific data processing mbH Göttingen
| Society for scientific data processing mbH Göttingen | |
|---|---|
 Entrance view of the GWDG in Tower 6 of the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry |
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| Category: | research Institute |
| Carrier: | The two shareholders |
| Seat of the wearer: | Shareholder seat in
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| Facility location: | Goettingen |
| Basic funding: | By both partners
at 50% each |
| Management: | Ramin Yahyapour |
| Homepage: | www.gwdg.de |
The Society for Scientific Data Processing mbH Göttingen (GWDG) is a joint institution of the University of Göttingen and the Max Planck Society . Founded in 1970, the GWDG is the university computing center of the University of Göttingen as well as a computing and IT competence center of the Max Planck Society. The GWDG conducts its own research in the field of practical and applied computer science and is involved in numerous research projects. It is also a member of the German Research Network .
Tasks and structure of the GWDG
The GWDG as a computing and IT competence center
The GWDG is a joint institution of the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen - Foundation of Public Law and the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science e. V. (MPG). It fulfills the function of a computing and IT competence center for the Max Planck Society and the university computing center for the University of Göttingen. Your research tasks are in the field of practical and applied computer science. It also promotes training for information technology specialists.
Lt. Social contract promotes the GWDG the science and research by
- operates a DP supply system for research institutions and universities,
- participates in the scientific design of IT / TC technology for research projects and university teaching,
- provides services for research institutions and universities as a research funding institution,
- advises scientific users on solving problems in the field of information and communication technology and participates in the implementation of problem solutions,
- educates scientists and users of information and communication technology,
- conducts his own research in the field of practical and applied computer science, in particular on the methodology of the use of computers to solve scientific questions. The entire IT supply system she oversees is the object of the investigation.
The tasks include, in particular, the operation of high-performance computers ( parallel computers ), the provision of special systems and the maintenance of the GÖNET transmission network that connects the Göttingen institutes. The GÖNET is connected to the national science network X-WiN and the Internet via the GWDG .
As an IT competence center, the GWDG advises and supports the institutes it supervises in all matters relating to scientific data processing.
Research in the field of practical and applied computer science
The GWDG is a scientific institution that researches questions from practical and applied computer science, in particular the methodology of using computers to solve scientific problems. This topic includes such sub-areas as computer operating systems , computer networks , data transmission technology , algorithms , network, system and application management and organizational theory of data processing . The GWDG provides empirical data for this research through its own data center operation.
Further activities of the GWDG are scientific conferences and workshops, in which the GWDG enters into scientific exchange with the university and Max Planck institutes, the publication system, the scientific library and the computer museum.
Training of specialists in information technology
The GWDG promotes the training of specialists for information technology in two ways: on the one hand by employing trainees and, if necessary, also interns and on the other hand by offering courses for users. The GWDG has been training since 1979. At first there were two apprenticeship positions, later more were added. There are currently two training courses: "IT specialist in application development" and "IT specialist in system integration".
The shareholders and the supervisory board
The GWDG is a joint institution of the Georg-August University of Göttingen - Foundation of Public Law and the Max Planck Society for the Promotion of Science eV, which thus represent the two shareholders and each have a half. In 2005, the state of Lower Saxony transferred its share in the GWDG to the University of Göttingen. The supervisory board has to fulfill the tasks and duties prescribed by the legislator, in particular monitoring and advising the management. The shareholders each send up to four members to the supervisory board. A representative of the Max Planck Society and the University of Göttingen hold the chairmanship of the Supervisory Board and the deputy chairmanship every two years.
The user representation
The user representation collects the requirements determined in their area for the use of data processing in the research and administration area of the scientific institutions, makes suggestions for changes or innovations to the services offered by the GWDG and advises them with the GWDG. The GWDG informs the user representatives about planned deployments of new IT technologies and new service contents and forms. The user representatives can comment on this and forward this information to the users in their area. It consists of 20 members, half of whom are representatives from institutions of the Max Planck Society and the University of Göttingen. The user representatives elect a chairman and a deputy from among their number. A representative of the Max Planck Society and the University of Göttingen hold the chair and deputy chair every two years.
The organizational structure
The current organizational structure of the GWDG, which has existed since December 1, 2004, is geared towards the various service areas. There are six working groups to which the tasks and areas of responsibility are divided:
1.) Working group application and information systems (AG A)
Operation of virtual web servers, databases, bioinformatics systems, library systems (Aleph), Macintosh advice center, long-term archiving, information systems, application systems
2.) Working group eScience (AG E)
Research and development of comprehensive digital infrastructures for science, business and the public sector. Focus: data and information management, long-term archiving, IT service management, big data, cloud computing, parallel computers and scientific computing
Support for the teaching of the Chair of Practical Computer Science, Center for Applied Computer Science at the Georg-August University of Göttingen
Support of the Göttingen eResearch Alliance
3.) Working group user service and operational services (AG H)
Helpdesk, user support, monitoring of operational readiness, management systems, processing of special user orders, print services including large format printing and operation of peripheral devices, e-mail service, Web 2.0 services, hosting of systems, AD services, directory and information services, multimedia
4.) IT Infrastructure Working Group (AG I)
Science network, file and backup / archive services, operation of virtual servers, basic infrastructure, data transmission networks (GÖNET incl. WLAN)
5.) Basic Services and Organization Working Group (AG O)
Reporting / accounting, user administration, identity management, portal technologies, operational organization, training, procurement and administration of software licenses, special systems (e.g. electronic application process), planning and implementation of courses on IT topics, press and public relations, library , Data protection, groupware, collaboration systems, public key infrastructure
6.) Working group administration and cross-sectional tasks (AG V)
Financial accounting, inventory management, human resources, purchasing, tenders, third-party funding management, contract management, controlling, business plan / medium-term financial planning, cost and performance accounting, travel planning and accounting
history
Timetable
The GWDG founding meeting took place on April 29, 1970. The two shareholders, the State of Lower Saxony, for the University of Göttingen and the Max Planck Society, each had a 50% share in the GWDG's capital, and according to the consortium agreement also concluded on April 29, 1970, half of the annual costs were also to be borne. The most important goal was the realization of synergies in information processing through the joint operation of a data center. In the year it was founded, the GWDG put a UNIVAC 1108 universal computer into operation. Its architecture made it particularly suitable for numerical applications. The CPU performed about 1 million instructions per second , or 1 MIPS. Among other things, two magnetic drum systems with a total of approx. 25 megabytes of storage space were operated via eight input / output channels. On February 23, 1976, Dieter Wall was appointed scientific director and thus successor to Bruno Brosowski. Wall prepared the founding of the GWDG, participated in its development and shaped and shaped it until his retirement in mid-1997. From 1979 on he was a member and from 1988 to 1994 chairman of the commission for computing systems of the DFG. In January 1978 the first edition of the GWDG-Nachrichten appeared. The editions of the first years were characterized by the printing of technical information about the only large computer system UNIVAC 1108 and later UNIVAC 1100/82. Descriptions of the operating system, individual programs and the compiler were added. Few special courses have been announced.
On September 14, 1979, the UNIVAC 1108, whose performance was by far no longer sufficient to cover requirements, was replaced by the successor model UNIVAC 1100/82 with the start of normal operation. It was equipped with two arithmetic processors, each with 2.5 MIPS. There was also an input / output processor with direct access to the shared main memory.
On November 1, 1979, the first Commodore PET 2001 PC was put into operation for internal use in the GWDG. The freely programmable desktop computer with BASIC interpreter had a clock rate of 1 MegaHertz, a main storage capacity of 8 kilobytes and a magnetic tape cassette drive.
On July 10, 1981, the VAX 11/780 computer system with an attached color graphics system went into operation. Its main application was the color graphics system AYDIN 5216 (for interactive graphic applications), consisting of two high-resolution color monitors with keyboard and joystick. Later the graphics tablet "Digi-Pad 5" was added for the interactive digitization of graphic representations, which worked with a stylus.
On October 15, 1984, when a COM (Computer Output on Microfilm) Benson 343 device was put into operation, a significant expansion of the graphic output range was achieved. Texts and colored graphics could be output on microfiches (105 mm), 35 mm slide film and 16 mm narrow film (only black and white). Readers, a processor, a duplicator and a re-enlarger were procured as additional equipment for working with microfiches.
In the middle of 1987, a connection between the GWDG and the German Research Network WiN was established for the first time, and thus also to the then little-known Internet . The transfer rate was 64 kilobit / s. This made it possible for the first time to use modern forms of tele-cooperation with partners in many research institutions worldwide.
On November 15, 1988, the IBM 3090 computer system with vector equipment was officially put into operation. One year earlier, on November 19, 1987, unrestricted user operation on the central computer had already started. Initially it was equipped with two processors, each with 16 MIPS, and a vector device. In April 1988 the computer system was expanded to include a third processor with a vector facility. The performance was 48 MIPS without taking the vector devices into account. In addition, the mass storage capacity has been increased to a total mass storage capacity of 45 gigabytes by connecting two magnetic disk subsystems.
In January 1992, operations began on the first GWDG workstations accessible to users, a DECstation 5000 and an IBM RS / 6000 , under the UNIX operating systems ULTRIX and AIX . In July 1992, workstations began to be expanded to form a cluster of two DECstations 5000 and five IBM RS / 6000 systems, which were linked via an FDDI ring. Transmission rates of 100 megabit / s were supported via fiber optic cables. A Cisco router established the connection to the Ethernet and the Internet.
In 1993 a parallel computer KSR1 with 32 processors, financed with funds from the DFG and the shareholders of the GWDG, was put into operation. Its total computing power was 1.28 gigaflops / s with a total memory size of 1 gigabyte.
In March 1993 the GÖNET backbone , a bundle of fiber optic cables , was put into operation in a ring from the GWDG via the north of the university, the university clinic, the area of the old clinic, the humanities center and through the city center to metal physics, in the southern area and the university observatory were sufficient. FDDI technology with a transmission rate of 100 megabits / sec was used in this backbone . In addition to the university institutes, the Max Planck Institute for Flow Research and the Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine were also connected to the fiber optic backbone.
In November 1993 the range of services offered by GWDG Computers, Networks, Specialists , in which the GWDG presents itself as an IT competence center, was published for the first time. The GWDG was the first scientific computer center in Germany to implement a recommendation from the DFG's Computer Systems Commission on the new distributed, cooperative supply system . From January 1994, all user orders were processed using the procedures listed in the catalog. The accounting procedure, the allocation as well as the cost and performance accounting system have been based on this service catalog, which is now only available online and updated daily on the WWW, since 1994.
The GWDG decided in May 1994 to operate a WWW server as an additional information system. They covered both the University of Göttingen and the Max Planck Society. The problem was: Tables under HTML had not yet been invented, Frontpage or other HTML composers were out of the question. Content was created with simple text editors, every HTML tag had to be typed in with the fingers on the keyboard.
On August 1, 1997, Gerhard Schneider succeeded the long-time managing director Dieter Wall, who held this position for more than 21 years. Particularly in the network area, Schneider ensured the early provision of innovative services and options (including ADSL and wireless LAN ), thus giving the science location Göttingen and its users an advantage over the competition several times.
On May 12, 1998, the new ATM backbone was inaugurated by the then Lower Saxony Minister of Science Oppermann. At 622 megabits / s, the fastest section of the scientific data highway in Lower Saxony connected the five Max Planck Institutes in the Göttingen area, the GWDG and the University of Göttingen with each other and with the broadband science network B-WiN. In addition to pure Internet traffic, ATM technology also allowed data connections with special quality requirements such as video and voice and was therefore an important basis for multimedia applications.
At the beginning of 2000, a high-performance digital printing system for color printouts went into operation - the so-called "printing line". With it, flyers, magazines, brochures and scientific publications in small to medium-sized runs could be produced quickly and inexpensively.
On February 10, 2000, the IBM RS / 6000 SP parallel computer system was put into operation. This increased the existing computing capacity for scientific simulation calculations by a factor of 10. The total computing power of the 144 processors was around 200 billion computing operations per second (200 gigaflops / s). It thus ranked among the top 100 in the top 500 list of global computing systems.
On February 16, 2001, the first section of the GoeMobile radio LAN in Göttingen was officially put into operation. The wireless LAN serves as a supplement to the stationary high-speed network GÖNET, which has been in existence since 1993. Even the initial transmission rate of 11 megabits / sec allowed video and sound transmissions in real time and thus also enabled participation in tele-lectures.
On January 1, 2002, Hartmut Koke, the previous deputy head of the data center, took over the management until a successor was finally found for the retired Gerhard Schneider. Koke played a decisive role in the development of the GÖ * project for integrated information management at the Göttingen science location and thus successfully advanced the cooperation between the various scientific IT service providers.
On July 1, 2003, Bernhard Neumair became the new managing director and thus successor to Hartmut Koke. He relied on increased cooperation using synergy effects between the scientific IT service providers at the Göttingen research location.
The GWDG was represented at CeBIT for the first time in 2005 . With the Instant Cluster and the GÖ * portal, two projects were presented there that dealt with easy access to IT resources with a focus on scientific use.
On March 30, 2007, the two high-performance parallel computer systems SGI Altix 4700 and Megware Woodcrest -Cluster were officially put into operation with a festive inauguration. With a top performance of the 1,112 cores of almost 10.5 teraflops / s, i.e. approx. 10.5 trillion arithmetic operations per second, they were among the most powerful computers in Lower Saxony and fivefold the computing power provided by the GWDG for science and research. This high performance, as well as 2.6 terabytes of main memory and 63.6 terabytes of local disk storage, allowed numerical simulations of complex systems investigated in basic scientific research with a resolution and accuracy not previously achieved.
On May 13, 2008 the GoeGrid grid resource center in Göttingen was officially put into operation. As a component of a future eScience infrastructure, GoeGrid realizes the central operation and the shared use of computing and storage resources of all grid communities in Göttingen. It initially comprised a high-performance computing cluster with over 800 computing cores, a mass storage area of 180 terabytes and an archive storage capacity of 30 terabytes.
On July 1, 2010, Oswald Haan, the previous deputy head of the computer center, and Paul Suren, the previous authorized signatory and administrative manager, jointly took over the management until a successor was finally found for the resigned Bernhard Neumair - Oswald Haan as scientific director and Paul Suren as administrative director.
On October 18, 2010, the GWDG celebrated its 40th anniversary.
At the beginning of 2011, the new Magny-Cours high-performance computing cluster from Megware went into operation. It contained a total of 66 computing nodes, each with four AMD twelve-core processors. With a total computing power of the total of 3,168 cores of 27.9 teraflops / s - i.e. 27.9 trillion arithmetic operations per second - a distributed main memory of 8.2 terabytes and a distributed local disk storage of 64 terabytes, the Magny-Cours cluster was at that time Currently the most powerful computer system at GWDG.
Ramin Yahyapour has been the new managing director since October 1st, 2011. Ramin Yahyapour replaced the previous scientific managing director, Oswald Haan, and Paul Suren, the previous administrative managing director. After Bernhard Neumair left the company on July 1, 2010, they both took over management. Oswald Haan retired after 18 years with the GWDG, Paul Suren continues to work as an authorized signatory and administrative manager at the GWDG, as before.
The MPI for Biophysical Chemistry, the MPI for Dynamics and Self-Organization and the GWDG presented themselves to the public on November 5, 2011 under the motto “Research up close - from the living cell to the robot” new Max Planck campus. This event attracted around 3,000 visitors to the Faßberg and, with a varied program, offered a variety of opportunities to take a look behind the scenes of the three institutions.
On June 14, 2012, the GWDG was officially accepted into the Gauß Alliance. The Gauss Alliance is a worldwide unique association of data centers with the aim of making the use of high-performance computing in the top performance classes - so-called supercomputers - efficient in Germany.
At the beginning of the 2012 training year, the GWDG is training IT specialists for the first time. This expanded the range of training opportunities to include another job profile from the fields of computer science and information technology.
The GWDG was successfully certified according to ISO 9001: 2008 in May 2013.
In June 2014 the University of Göttingen founded an eResearch Alliance to support research and teaching with digital infrastructures at the Göttingen location. The Göttingen eResearch Alliance is jointly managed by the Göttingen State and University Library (SUB) and the GWDG.
Since October 20, 2015, the GWDG website has been presented in a completely new form as a central customer portal for all users.
In October 2016, the computing power of the Scientific Compute Cluster of the GWDG was expanded, increasing its total performance to 356 teraflops / s.
On March 7, 2018, the purchase contracts for the new 30 million euro supercomputer HLRN-IV were signed in Berlin and Göttingen, the two locations of the high-performance computer. With a total computing power of approx. 15 PetaFlop / s, the new system will be around six times faster than the previous one and will be installed in two phases in 2018 and 2019 at the two operator sites.
On May 29, 2018, in the presence of the Lower Saxony Minister for Science and Culture, Björn Thümler, the foundation stone was laid on the north campus of the University of Göttingen for the new construction of the joint data center for the science location Göttingen. In the first phase of construction by 2020, a building complex with machine room and office space will be built there for around 38.5 million euros, which is intended to strengthen the international competitiveness of Göttingen as a science location.
On December 11, 2018, the first phase of the HLRN-IV system was put into production for all users in Göttingen.
On March 26, 2019, the topping-out ceremony for the new joint data center for the science location Göttingen took place in the presence of the Lower Saxony Minister for Science and Culture, Björn Thümler, on the north campus of the University of Göttingen.
From August 26th to 30th, 2019, the "Euro-Par 2019 - 25th International European Conference on Parallel and Distributed Computing" took place under the motto "Celebrating the 25th Anniversary in Göttingen". It was organized by the GWDG in cooperation with the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen and the Lower Saxony State and University Library Göttingen (SUB).
The GWDG celebrated its 50th birthday on April 29, 2020. Unfortunately, the planned celebration had to be postponed to a later date due to the corona pandemic.
executive Director
All managing directors since the GWDG was founded are listed below:
- Bruno Brosowski (academic; 1970 to 1975)
- Kurt Pfuhl (administrative; 1970 to 1984)
- Dieter Wall (scientific; 1975 to 1984)
- Dieter Wall (1985 to 1997)
- Gerhard Schneider (1997 to 2002)
- Hartmut Koke (2002 to 2003)
- Bernhard Neumair (2003 to 2010)
- Oswald Haan (scientific; 2010 to 2011)
- Paul Suren (administrative; 2010 to 2011)
- Ramin Yahyapour (since October 2011)
services
The GWDG offers customers from the University of Göttingen and the Max Planck Society information and communication services for science. This includes the most important basic IT services on the one hand and research-related support for eScience on the other. Basic IT services include mailing & collaboration (including Exchange, SharePoint and Lotus), cloud services (server, storage and cloud share), identity management, data storage (file services, backup and archive), network services (GÖNET, WLAN and eduroam), License management, client management, application services (including Apple advice center, library services, database services and web services), IT security and print services. The eScience support includes the areas of research data management (generation -> processing -> archiving, metadata acquisition, automated archiving and access management) as well as scientific computing and high performance computing (HPC).
research
In addition to extensive support for research in its customer institutes, the GWDG conducts its own research in the field of practical and applied informatics and is also involved in numerous, often third-party funded research projects with national and international partners. The focus is on data management and cloud services and, as a result, the continuous further development of digital research infrastructures.
Teaching
The managing director of the GWDG, Prof. Dr. Ramin Yahyapour, holds the chair for Practical Computer Science at the Institute for Computer Science at the University of Göttingen. As part of this activity, he regularly offers the following courses:
- Parallel Computing (in the winter semester)
- Practical Course on Parallel Computing (each summer semester)
- Service Computing (each summer semester)
- Oberseminar Cloud Computing, Data Management and Data Center Networking (every semester)
Bachelor and master theses as well as doctorates in the areas of data management, long-term data archiving, IT service management, distributed systems, storage systems and the cloud are offered. There is also the option of working as an assistant scientist in the above-mentioned subject areas.
Individual evidence
- ^ GWDG: research projects, research projects
- ^ GWDG: GWDG news, GWDG news
Coordinates: 51 ° 33 ′ 47 " N , 9 ° 58 ′ 15" E