2023-05-01 17:30:11
A giant machine, little known, will celebrate, on May 9, its 20 years of operation at the service of the computer community and celebrate its many contributions, including in the field of efficiency and digital sobriety. Its name smells of the old days of computing, Grid’5000, a system worth 16 million euros, made up of 16,000 cores distributed in 750 nodes installed on nine sites (Rennes, Lyon, Nice, etc.) and linked by fibers at 10 gigabits per second from the Renater academic network. The CEA, CNRS, Inria and many universities are partners.
Today, Grid’5000 would be called “cloud”, but when the idea germinated, we spoke rather of “computing grid”, that is to say the provision of several processors and memories on demand , as opposed to the centralized calculation of dedicated centers, housing supercomputers. In the grid, unity is strength and the distribution of operations across a network makes it possible to connect several “clusters” of processors. Enough to do calculations, of course, but also to test peer-to-peer exchange protocols, know how to distribute databases over several sites, or even deploy software suites in data center analogues…
“For all these applications, we had theories, but nothing in practice, because we didn’t have the machines, neither in France nor abroad, for that matter.recalls Frédéric Desprez, Inria researcher in Grenoble and director of the Grid’5000 scientific interest group since 2012. We needed computers that we could turn off, turn on, reinstall constantly with the tools to be tested. In short, we needed machines that we could screw up! » It is out of the question to do it on the supercomputers of a calculation production center. “The first obstacle to overcome came from the authorities who feared that we would provide hackers with a huge capacity for attacksremembers Frédéric Desprez. We were convinced that the sealing to the outside was solid. »
Assess energy costs
The second challenge was to convince and help manufacturers develop remote ignition and extinguishing systems. “Techniques that did not exist and which are now standards”, points out Frédéric Desprez. This is also where the first wattmeters were installed to measure the electricity consumption of the computers. Which didn’t interest anyone at the time. “People were even afraid that it would open the door to having their calculations billed”remembers Anne-Cécile Orgerie, CNRS researcher in Rennes, who installed these instruments during her thesis, between 2008 and 2011.
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