Advanced Scientific Computing Environment Team

摘要

The mission of the ASCENT (Advanced Scientific Computing EnvironmenT) Team is continually keep pace with, evaluate, and select emerging computing technologies to define and implement prototypic scientific computing environments that maximize the ability of scientists and engineers to manage scientific data. These environments are to be implemented in a manner consistent with the site computing architecture and standards and strategic plans for scientific computing. A broad, long term, goal of the ASCENT Team is to provide a computing environment that will let scientists and engineers function at the higher level of abstraction that is their actual area of technical expertise. The scientist/engineer should be able to solve problems by interacting with conceptual representations drawn directly from the scientific and engineering domains. In this environment the scientist/engineer (i.e., the ''problem solver'') builds the problem model with reusable virtual objects having associated attributes and behaviors, including any real or artificial constraints. The problem solver could then test the model by perturbing it interactively and observing quantitative (archived experimental measurements; simulated or computed data) and/or qualitative (trends, approximations) responses. Such an environment would greatly aid the solution and understanding of scientific and engineering problems. This report discusses the proposed system, program, graphic tools and applications.