Title :
High performance access to radio astronomy data: a case study
Author :
Karpovich, John F. ; French, James C. ; Grimshaw, Andrew S.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Comput. Sci., Virginia Univ., Charlottesville, VA, USA
Abstract :
As CPU performance has rapidly improved, increased pressure has been placed on the performance of accessing external data in order to keep up with demand. Increasingly often the I/O subsystem and related software is unable to meet this demand and valuable CPU resources are left underutilized, while users are forced to wait longer than necessary for results. This problem is especially acute for many scientific applications which use large data sets and require high performance. The paper presents experiences with working to alleviate an I/O bottleneck in radio astronomy applications at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). It presents the model, the ExtensibLe File Systems model (ELFS), for improving both the performance of data access and the usability of access software. It then presents the current situation at NRAO, the solution, performance results and plans for future work
Keywords :
astronomy computing; input-output programs; radioastronomy; telecommunications computing; CPU performance; CPU resources; ELFS; ExtensibLe File Systems model; I/O bottleneck; I/O subsystem; NRAO; case study; data access; external data access; future work; high performance; high performance access; large data sets; performance results; radio astronomy applications; radio astronomy data; scientific applications; Computer aided software engineering; Computer science; File systems; Geophysical measurement techniques; Ground penetrating radar; NASA; Power system modeling; Radio astronomy; Runtime; Usability;
Conference_Titel :
Scientific and Statistical Database Management, 1994. Proceedings., Seventh International Working Conference on
Conference_Location :
Charlottesville, VA
Print_ISBN :
0-8186-6610-2
DOI :
10.1109/SSDM.1994.336935
