CERNCOURIER IN FOCUS COMPUTING A retrospective of 60 years’ coverage of computing technology cerncourier.com 2019 COMPUTERS, WHY? 1972: CERN’s Lew Kowarski on how computers worked and why they were needed COMPUTING IN HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS 1989: CHEP conference considered the data challenges of the LEP era WEAVING A BETTER TOMORROW 1999: a snapshot of the web as it was beginning to take off THE CERN OPENLAB 2003: Grid computing was at the heart of CERN’s new industry partnership CCSupp_4_Computing_Cover_v3.indd 1 20/11/2019 13:54 CERNCOURIER WWW. 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As the COMPUTERS, WHY? 13 reproduced articles in this issue show, 1972: in the year Intel’s 8008 processor was launched and the compact disc invented, CERN’s Lew Kowarski explained why computers were here to stay. it did not take long for computing to become a pillar of high-energy physics. WEAVING A BETTER TOMORROW 16 The BG-75 Biomarker Generator is a revolutionary 400 MeV Rapid Cycling Medical Synchrotron The field has inspired many advances, 1999: at 10 years old, the web was only just beginning to fulfil its potential. development in radio-pharmaceutical production for Proton-to-Carbon Heavy Ion Therapy: most famously the web and the Grid, THE MICROPROCESSOR BOOM 19 18 that delivers a single or batch dose of F-FDG, and and must now pursue the most advanced 1979: this prescient article described how the microprocessor would soon 18 Intrinsically small beams facilitating additional advanced F biomarkers on demand. beam delivery with precision technology developed elsewhere to meet become a routine part of the high-energy physicists’ toolkit. The system provides integration of all components the demands of future experiments. In Small beam sizes – small magnets, COMPUTING IN HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS 21 needed to produce and qualify PET biomarkers our special foreword, software-specialist into a single, self-contained system that occupies light gantries – smaller footprint 1989: the Computing In High Energy Physics conference weighed up Graeme Stewart sets out the need for the challenges of analysing data from LEP. a fraction of the space required by conventional Highly efficient single turn extraction physicists to prepare for a deluge of data solutions, simplifying the implementation of PET. Efficient extraction – less shielding A MAJOR SHIFT IN OUTLOOK 25 in a fast-evolving technological and 2001: Ben Segal described how distributed UNIX boxes took over from Flexibility – heavy ion beam therapy commercial landscape. CERN’s all-powerful IBM and Cray mainframe workhorses. (protons and/or carbon), beam • All of this year’s special supplements, delivery modalities THE CERN OPENLAB 27 including those devoted to detector, 2003: Grid computing was the theme of this feature about a new model vacuum and magnet technology, can for partnership between CERN and industry. be read at cerncourier.com under the CERN’S ULTIMATE ACT OF OPENNESS 30 section “In Focus”. 2019: the seed that led CERN to relinquish ownership of the web in 1993 Matthew Chalmers was planted when the laboratory formally came into being. ion Rapid Cycling Medical Synchrotron (iRCMS) Editor Philippe Bloch, Roger Head of Media Advertising sales Advertising Published by CERN, 1211 Matthew Chalmers Forty, Mike Lamont, Jo Allen Tom Houlden, Tel +44 (0)117 930 1026 Geneva 23, Switzerland Associate editor Matthew Mccullough Head of Media Chris Thomas or +44 (0)117 930 1164; Tel +41 (0) 22 767 61 11 Mark Rayner Business Development Advertisement e-mail sales@ E-mail Produced for CERN by Ed Jost production cerncourier.com Printed by Warners [email protected] IOP Publishing Ltd Art direction Katie Graham (Midlands) plc, Bourne, TeamBest Companies © 2019 * Best iRCMS is under development and not available for sale currently. Advisory board Temple Circus, Temple Frédérique Swist Marketing and General distribution Lincolnshire, UK Peter Jenni, Christine Way, Bristol BS1 6HG, UK Production editor circulation courrier-adressage@ www.bestcyclotron.com • www.bestabt.com • www.bestproton.com Sutton, Claude Amsler, Tel +44 (0)117 929 7481 Ruth Leopold Laura Gillham cern.ch © 2019 CERN BCS tel: 604 681 3327 • Best ABT tel: 865 982 0098 • BPT tel: 703 451 2378 DECEMBER 2019 3 BCS_Best ABT_BPT_ComboAd_CERNCourier_213x282mm_withIPAC2019_ShowInfo_v29_04162019_working.indd 1 4/16/19 11:50:57 AM CCSupp_4_Computing_Conts_v5.indd 3 20/11/2019 11:21 CERNCOURIER WWW. I N F OCUS C OMPUT I N G CERNCOURIER.COM HIGH VOLTAGE. EXACTLY. SPECIAL POWER FOR MODERN DETECTORS FOREWORD MODULAR LOW AND HIGH VOLTAGE MULTICHANNEL POWER SUPPLY SYSTEMS MMS MMS HV LV compatible compatible Adapting to exascale computing CERN’s Graeme Stewart surveys Bennett/CERNS six decades of computing milestones in high-energy physics and describes the immense challenges in taming the data volumes from future experiments in a rapidly changing technological landscape. It is impossible to envisage high- energy physics without its foundation of microprocessor technology, software and distributed computing. Almost as s o o n a s C E R N w a s fo u n d e d t h e fi r s t c on- tract to provide a computer was signed, but it took manufacturer Ferranti more than two years to deliver “Mercury”, our first valve-based behemoth, in 1958. Ever-evolving The CERN data centre, photographed in 2016. Graeme Stewart So early did this machine arrive that is a software the venerable FORTRAN language had computers, and every time transistors Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG). highest channel density to save valueable installation space specialist in the yet to be invented! A team of about 10 got smaller, clock speeds could be Not only would information need to be CERN EP-SFT people was required for operations and ramped up. It was a golden age where transferred, but huge amounts of data best ripple and noise characteristics group. He is a the I/O system was already a bottle- more advanced machines, running ever and millions of computer jobs would member of the neck. It was not long before faster and faster, gave us an exponential increase need to be moved and executed, all with ATLAS experiment more capable machines were available in computing power. a reliability that would support the LHC’s up to 30 kV, up to 100 W per channel and coordinator of at the lab. By 1963, an IBM 7090 based on Key also to the computing revolution, physics programme. A large investment the High-Energy transistor technology was available with alongside the hardware, was the growth in brand new grid technologies was pure LV compatible, pure HV compatible and mixed setup crates available Physics Software a FORTRAN compiler and tape storage. of open-source software. The GNU pro- undertaken, and software engineers Foundation. This machine could analyse 300,000 ject had produced many utilities that and physicists in the experiments had high class & quality precision low and high voltage supplies frames of spark-chamber data – a big could be used by hackers and coders on to develop, deploy and operate a new grid early success. By the 1970s, computers which to base their own software. With system utterly unlike anything that had interchangeable controller boards for networking and software control were important enough that CERN hosted the start of the Linux project to provide gone before. Despite rapid progress in its first Computing and Data Handling a kernel, humble PCs became increas- computing power, storage space and net- School. It was clear that computers were ingly capable machines for scientific working, it was extremely hard to make a here to stay. com puting. Around the same time, Tim reliable, working distributed system for FLEXIBLE By the time of the LEP era in the Berners-Lee’s proposal for the World particle physics out of these pieces. Yet CHANNEL late 1980s, CERN hosted multiple large Wide Web, which began as a tool for w e a c h i e v e d t h i s i n c r e d i bl e t a s k .