29. HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS DATA ACQUISITION AND PROCESSING
The DOE supports the development of advanced electronics and computational technologies for the recording, processing, storage, distribution, and analysis of experimental data that is essential to experiments and particle accelerators used for High Energy Physics (HEP) research. Areas of present interest include event triggering, data acquisition, scalable clustered computer systems, distributed collaborative infrastructure, distributed data management and analysis frameworks, and distributed software development useful to HEP experiments and particle accelerators. Grant applications must clearly and specifically indicate their relevance to present or future HEP programmatic activities.
Although particle physics detector instrumentation, data processing and analysis, and software development typically occur in large collaborative efforts at national particle accelerator centers, there are efforts where small businesses can make innovative and creative contributions to further development of the required advanced technologies. Applicants are encouraged to collaborate with active high energy elementary particle physicists at universities or national laboratories to establish mutually beneficial goals. On-line directories of appropriate researchers are available by institution at http://www.hep.net/sites/directories.htlml. Grant applications are sought only in the following subtopics:
a. High-Speed Electronic Instrumentation—Grant applications are sought to develop components, electronics, systems, and instrumentation modules as follows:
(1) Special purpose chips and devices are sought for use in the internal circuitry employed in large particle detectors. Desirable features include low noise, low power consumption, high packing density, radiation resistance, very high response speed, and/or high adaptability to situations requiring multiple parallel channels. Desirable functions include amplifiers, counters, analog pulse storage devices, decoders, encoders, analog-to-digital converters, pico-second resolution time-to-digital converters, controllers, and communications interface devices.
(2) Circuits and systems are sought for rapidly processing data from particle detectors such as proportional wire chambers, scintillation counters, silicon microstrip detectors, particle calorimeters, and Cerenkov counters. Representative processing functions and circuits include low noise pulse amplifiers and preamplifiers, high speed counters (>300 MHz), and time-to-amplitude converters. Compatibility with one of the widely used module interconnection standards (e.g., VMEbus, PCIExpress, or high speed serial interfaces) is highly desirable, as would be low power consumption, high component density, and/or adaptability to large numbers of multiple channels.
(3) Advanced, high speed logic arrays and microprocessor systems are sought for fast event identification, event trigger generation, and data processing with very high throughput capability. Such systems should be compatible with or implemented in one of the widely used module interconnection standards (e.g., VMEbus, PCIExpress, or high speed serial interfaces).
(4) Much of the electronics instrumentation in use in HEP is packaged in one of the international module inter-connection standards (e.g., VMEbus, PCIExpress, or high speed serial interfaces). Therefore, grant applications are sought for modules that will provide capabilities not previously available; for substantial performance enhancement to existing types of modules; and for components, devices, or systems that will enhance or significantly extend the capability or functionality of one of the standard systems. Examples include large and/or fast buffer memories, single module computer systems (either general purpose or special purpose), display modules, interconnection systems, communication modules and systems, and disk-drive interface modules.
Questions - contact Saul Gonzalez (saul.gonzalez@science.doe.gov)
b. Large Scale Analysis Computer Systems—The Office of High Energy physics seeks grant applications to develop:
(1) computer system components and supporting software enabling cost-effective and reliable use of petabyte-scale storage networks, especially for magnetic disks, optical disks, and magnetic tapes;
(2) computer system components and supporting software enabling the use of transport protocols in a more efficient manner over local and wide area networks;
(3) improvements to the reliability of cybersecurity systems protecting distributed storage systems; and/or
(4) improvements to the reliability and performance of wide area networks.
Proposed efforts must address identified computing problems
related to diverse, large scale computing systems that support particle physics
data processing and analysis.
Questions - contact Saul Gonzalez (saul.gonzalez@science.doe.gov)
c. Distributed Collaborative Infrastructure and Distributed Data Management and Analysis Frameworks—Advanced computational tools and software are needed to strengthen the ability of dispersed particle physics researchers to collaborate and to address problems related to the acquisition, handling, storage, analysis, and visualization of large datasets by these distributed collaborations. Grant applications are sought to develop:
(1) client-server frameworks and Web tools for creating collaborative environments, facilitating remote participation of detector experts at the data collection stage, and/or allowing collaborators real-time two-way participation in remote meetings;
(2) software project management tools;
(3) computer system components and supporting software incorporating the use of Quality of Service features generally available in wide area networks;
(4) portable systems to hold very large collections of data of the type created in connection with the operation of very large detectors, along with data management tools;
(5) visualization and software environments appropriate for physics analysis;
(6) software to support data systems distributed over a wide area network;
(7) framework, interconnects, and other peripherals which allow the use and orderly aggregation of commodity computers and computer peripherals at larger than normal scales, or at higher performance levels than usual;
(8) software development tools for the production of computer software to meet identified problems related to distributed, large scale software development, configuration management, and data analysis – approaches of interest include distributed portable testing and Computer Aided Software Engineering, including configuration management tools for a portable, distributed environment;
(9) Web tools for remote data selection ("skimming"); and
(10)
Algorithms and software tools for pattern recognition and optimization of
data analysis.
Questions - contact Saul Gonzalez (saul.gonzalez@science.doe.gov)
d. Simulation and
Modeling Techniques and Systems—Grant
applications are sought to develop advanced computing tools and software for
high energy physics simulation and modeling. Topics of interest include
simulation and modeling algorithms for high energy physics processes, particle
detectors, and theoretical calculations. Applications are also sought in areas
of simulation support such as frameworks for the management,
configuration, custody, and dissemination of simulation and modeling data to
enable sharing by multiple experiments and theory research groups.
Questions - contact Saul Gonzalez (saul.gonzalez@science.doe.gov)
References:
1. “ATLAS Collaboration, ATLAS: Technical Proposal for a General-Purpose pp Experiment at the Large Hadron Collider,” CERN, Geneva: CERN [European Laboratory for Particle Physics], December 1994. (Document No. CERN/LHCC/94-43, available at: http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/TP/tp.html).
2. “ATLAS HLT, DAQ, and DCS Technical Design Report,” CERN, October 2, 2003. (Document No. CERN/LHCC/2003-022) (Available at: http://atlas-proj-hltdaqdcs-tdr.web.cern.ch/)
3. Bromley, D. A., “Evolution and Use of Nuclear Detectors and Systems,” Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 162(1-3, pt. I): 1-8, 1979. (ISSN: 0168-9002)
4. “Documents Relating to CMS Software and Computing,” CERN Website. (URL: http://cms-project-ccs.web.cern.ch)
5. Duggan, J. L. and Morgan, I. L., eds., “Application of Accelerators in Research and Industry: Proceedings of the 14th International Conference,” Denton, TX, November 6-9, 1996, 2 Vols., New York: American Institute of Physics, May 1997. (AIP Conference Proceedings No. 392) (ISBN: 1-563-96652-2) (For ordering information, see: American Institute of Physics Conference Proceedings sub-series: Accelerators, Beams, Instrumentation at: http://proceedings.aip.org/proceedings/accelerators.jsp)
6. “Computer Applications in Nuclear and Plasma Science,” Conferences on Real-Time Computer Applications in Nuclear, Particle, and Plasma Physics, IEEE-sponsored Website. (URL: http://ewh.ieee.org/soc/nps/CANPS.htm)
7. Kleinknecht, K., “Detectors for Particle Radiation,” Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 1986. (ISBN: 0521304245)
8. Perkins, D. H., “An Introduction to High Energy Physics,” Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1982. (ISBN: 0-201-05757-3)
9. “PCI Express: Performance Scalability for the Next Decade,” PCI-SIG Website. (URL: http://www.pcisig.com/specifications/pciexpress)
10. Regler, M., et al., “Data Analysis Techniques in High Energy Physics Experiments,” Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 2000. (ISBN: 0521632196)
11. “SciDAC:HENP” (Scientific Discovery Through Advanced Computing Programs in High Energy and Nuclear Physics), U.S. DOE Website. (URL: http://www.scidac.org/henp.html)
12. “MICS HPN” (High Performance Networks), Website for research program in U.S. DOE Office of Mathematical, Information and Computational Sciences (MICS). (URL: http://www.sc.doe.gov/ascr/mics/hpn/)
13. “DOE UltraScience Net: Experimental Ultra-Scale Network Research Testbed [Ultranet] for Large-Scale Science,” U.S. DOE Website. (URL: http://www.csm.ornl.gov/ultranet/)
14. “Protocols for Fast Long Distance Networks,” PFLDnet 2004: Second International Workshop on Protocols for Fast Long-Distance Networks at: http://www-didc.lbl.gov/PFLDnet2004/ and PFLDnet 2005: Third International Workshop on Protocols for Fast Long-Distance Networks at: http://www.ens-lyon.fr/LIP/RESO/pfldnet2005/.
15. Lattice QCD Executive Committee, “Computational Infrastructure for Lattice Gauge Theory: a Strategic Plan,” U.S. DOE, April 4, 2002. (Full text available at: http://www.lqcd.org/scidac/strategic-plan-04-04.pdf)
16. International Linear Collider Communication Website, International Linear Collider Communication Group. (URL: http://www.interactions.org/linearcollider/)
17. “GGF Document Series,” Global Grid Forum published documents. (URL: http://www.gridforum.org/documents/final.htm)
18. “Statistical Problems in Particle Physics, Astrophysics, and Cosmology Workshop Series” (See ’05 Workshop Recommended Reading list: http://www.physics.ox.ac.uk/phystat05/reading.htm)
19. “CHEP’04 Interlaken [Computing in High Energy Physics Conference],” Interlaken Switzerland, Sept. 27-Oct.4, 2004, Website. (Website, including Conference papers at: http://chep2004.web.cern.ch/chep2004/)
20. Open Science Grid Website. (URL: http://opensciencegrid.org)
Return
to the
Complete List of Topics
| Program Information, Instructions and Requirements | Technical Topic Descriptions | Download Program Information | Download Technical Topics |