2002 - cesnet

7 MetaCentrumThe objective of the MetaCentrum project is to develop the infrastructure of theacademic high-speed network and extend it with the support of applicationsthat require extensive computing capacities. The aim of MetaCentrum is to interconnectthe existing computing capacities of the largest academic centres inthe Czech Republic and ensure their further expansion.The systems administered by the project form a virtual distributed computer,recently also referred to as the Grid. The purpose of these activities is to liberateusers of irrelevant differences between individual particular systems, formingthe Grid, and to enable their synchronous utilization and thus provide acomputing capacity exceeding the potential of individual centres.The project includes an operating section, responsible for the functioning ofthe infrastructure, and a development section, in which new methods and techniquesfor the generation and support of Grids are developed and tested. Theproject also includes support for international activities of the CESNET associationand other academic subjects, particularly with respect to the involvementin the 5 th EU Framework Program. For information concerning MetaCentrum,including access to all administrative functions, visit the MetaCentrum portal,available at meta.cesnet.cz.The following centres were incorporated in the solution of MetaCentrumproject in 2001:• Institute of Computer Science, Masaryk University in Brno• Institute of Computer Science, Charles University in Prague• Centre for Information Technology, University of West Bohemia in Plzeň• Computing Centre, Technical University of OstravaExcept for the last centre, all the previously mentioned centres contribute withtheir computing capacities, particularly large computing systems from SGI andCompaq.7.1 OperationThe computing capacities of MetaCentrum are situated in the following fourlocalities and three cities: Brno (ÚVT MU), Prague (CESNET and ÚVT UK) andPlzeň (CIV ZČU). The systems at ÚVT MU, CESNET and CIV ZČU are directlyconnected to the high-speed backbone of CESNET2, via a reserved line, withthe capacity of 1 Gbps. The systems at ÚVT UK are directly linked to the PAS-NET metropolitan network and further to the backbone of CESNET2.96 High-speed National Research Network and its New Applications 2002