A Guide to Technology Resources at Drexel
Network Research Resources
Internet2
Internet2 (http://internet2.edu) is a non-profit, advanced networking consortium, operating a revolutionary-class IP and optical network, led by the U.S. research and education community.
Drexel, in partnership with the Three Rivers Optical Exchange (3ROX) of Carnegie Mellon University, is one of twenty "connectors" to Interent2. Both Drexel in Philadelphia and 3ROX in Pittsburgh are connected to Internet2 using 5 Gbps links that can be expanded to 10 Gbps as demand warrants.
In Philadelphia, 3ROX/Drexel, as the partnership is known, provides Internet2 access to the 14 universities of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE), the largest provider of higher education in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; the School District of Philadelphia; the Academy of Natural Sciences; and the Drexel University College of Medicine. In Pittsburgh, service is provided for CMU, the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC), the Pennsylvania State University, University of Pittsburgh, and West Virginia University.
Other Internet2 consortium members, which include 221 U.S. Universities, 45 leading corporations, 66 government agencies and laboratories, 35 regional and state research networks, and more than 100 national research and education organizations representing 50 countries, gain access to the Internet2 network through one of the other 19 Internet2 Connectors.
Internet2 member network traffic is exchanged or routed over a 10/100 Gbps high performance, low-latency national backbone in lieu of using the commodity Internet. This superior connectivity allows for the transfer of massively large data sets, communications using high-definition real-time multimedia data streams, and other advanced networking technologies that could not be sustained over the commodity Internet.
All network traffic at Drexel destined for an Internet2-connected member institution is automatically transported over the Internet2 backbone. There are no end-user or application reconfigurations required to take advantage of the benefits of Internet2 connectivity.
Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center
Storage
The PSC-developed Data Supercell is a low cost, high bandwidth, low latency, highly reliable, and high capacity disk-based data management solution. It provides academic, corporate, government, and research partners with a convenient and affordable way to store and access their data, including extremely large data sets.
The minimum storage requirement is 10TB. The first copy of data is $250/TB/year; a second copy, if required, is an additional $175/TB/year.
Computing
PSC's flagship HPC system, Blacklight, is the world's largest shared-memory system. Its extremely large memory, 16 terabytes, coupled with its familiar Linux operating system and versatile programming models makes it as easy to use as a PC. Complementing Blacklight are HPC clusters that are ideal for running smaller, loosely coupled analyses.
For additional information on the services from the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, contact Cheryl Begandy at 412-268-5129 or begandy@psc.edu.
XSEDE
XSEDE, the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment, is a single virtual system, connected via Internet2, that scientists can use to interactively share computing resources, data, and expertise. People around the world use these resources and services—things like supercomputers, collections of data and new tools—to improve our planet.
For additional information about XSEDE, contact Ken Blackney, at 215-895-1505 or Ken.Blackney@drexel.edu.
Libraries
Library databases are available for research. The Drexel libraries subscribe to a large number of general and specialized databases, some with bibliographic citations and some with full-text items.
Access to Drexel's library databases and resources, based on your status at the University, can be found via the DrexelOne portal under the "Drexel" tab. For a comprehensive list of access privileges, visit http://library.drexel.edu/about/access-policy.
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