Connecting Researchers to HPCS through Web Services

Researchers may find it difficult to run experiments on High Performance Computing Systems (HPCS) if they are unfamiliar with terminals and UNIX/Linux commands. Instead of using available HPCS resources, they may choose to run experiments on their personal computers, even if it takes them weeks to run small jobs. However, these researchers are familiar with using the Internet on a daily basis to check email or read the latest news. To make high performance computing more accessible and to help researchers use the HPCS available to them, the authors have developed a web based interface for running simulations from a web browser. This paper describes the design of this interface and its benefits.