International Science Grid This Week December 2008 - Feature from SC08

Full article:

How to run a Million Jobs 

A quote from the article on SC08 describes work by MessageLab as follows:

Indigestion? Rethink, repackage …

Some experts think that many research questions can be answered using the same grid-type computing model, but using a different approach than megajobs.

David Abramson of Monash University wants the grid community to help scientists find smarter ways to specify problems by focusing on the scientific questions in the first place. He cites his Nimrod family of tools that provides sophisticated methods to search for good solutions as opposed to all solutions. Users can ask complex questions such as “Which parameter values will minimize the output of my model?” This helps shield the user from the complexity of managing lots of independent jobs