FastDL - Cluster Computing with IDL

Timely Visualization and Analysis of Large Data Sets Using IDL and Parallel Computing

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Often experiments and simulations generate large data sets that require immediate processing. Scientists exploring fluid and particle dynamics, high-energy and plasma physics, astrophysics and space sciences, biophysics, protein folding and medical science are challenged to visualize and analyze increasingly complex data. Many technical professionals rely on the Interactive Data Language (IDL) from ITT Visual Information Solutions, Inc. to visualize and analyze these large data sets.

However some analyses cannot be practically accomplished on a workstation or server with only symmetric multi-processing. And while distributed computing promises cost-effective computing power, IDL alone does not naturally take advantage of this parallel environment.

To bridge the gap between IDL and parallel computing, Tech-X Corporation has developed FastDL. With FastDL scientists and developers can run IDL visualization and analyses applications in parallel, significantly shortening the time required to get results.

Because not every large scale visualization and analysis problem can be solved using the same parallel computing paradigm, FastDL offers two independent components that address the computational needs of parallel data analysis and visualization:

TaskDL	- designed for problems where computations on each node are independent of one another and are performed on different data (task farming).
mpiDL	- appropriate for complex problems where nodes need to communicate during the analysis and may need to perform different tasks.

TaskDL
TaskDL helps scientists and developers quickly re-purpose IDL applications to run in parallel using a task farm paradigm. Within minutes and with minimal code changes, users can run serial IDL applications in parallel. TaskDL is appropriate for improving the performance of applications where parallelized tasks do not need to communicate with one another, such as movie frame rendering and Monte Carlo simulations.

Learn more about TaskDL:

• How Does TaskDL Work?
• Example: Wavelet Analysis of NASA's SOHO Images

mpiDL
mpiDL is designed to meet the needs of scientists and developers who are familiar with parallel computing and want to use IDL for data visualization and analysis. This add-on library implements the Message Passing Interface (MPI) standard in IDL. Through message passing, mpiDL lets users delegate computation sub-tasks to machines in the cluster. Examples of problems well-suited to mpiDL are finite element analysis and analysis of distributed data sets created by parallel plasma or weather simulations.

Learn more about mpiDL:

• How Does mpiDL Work?
• Case Study: General Atomics Uses mpiDL for Large U.S. Fusion Experiment
• Case Study: Using mpiDL for Climate Predication and Image Processing

FastDL System Requirements
Both FastDL components are designed to operate on clusters or networks of computers. TaskDL and mpiDL require a runtime license of IDL for each node in the cluster.

mpiDL also requires that the MPI libraries be installed on each node in the cluster.

TaskDL requires ssh access to the computers acting as workers.

Purchasing FastDL
For information on purchasing FastDL, contact sales@txcorp.com.