Joint CDF/D0/CD Run II Computing Meeting of October 6, 1998

ZOOM -- Mark Fischler gave a verbal update on the project

• Standard International Units - about to put this in to a ZOOM release for everyone to use, assuming some legal issues remain resolved
• Discovered that SRT is not capable of having multiple libraries built from the same sources
• Errorlogger next release will have basically all the stuff which is in the document. This should be available in about 3 weeks.
• HepTuple - someone at D0 requested an extension to the product - ability to have arrays of histograms. Want to ask the Steering Committee whether this is sensible. Official Dzero request - discovered users are implementing this themselves in unpleasant ways. Arrays of histograms.
• An initial and tentative project schedule has been submitted to Ruth and Dane - will show this next time.

Production Management -- Marilyn Schweitzer gave a summary of the status of the work on Run II Farms. Her transparencies There is an upcoming review of a proposed Farms architecture for Run II. This could be presented at a Run II meeting, or else the run II computing list could be informed of when the review will be held, so those interested can attend.

Physics Analysis Hardware Procurement - Ruth Pordes reported on the work of this group. Her transparencies covered the Goals, Meeting and Topics of the Group

• Physics Analysis Hardware Tasks - WBS
• Budget
• D0 Analysis Computing Architecture
• CDF central analysis system - risk-free design
• Network Support
• Topics under discussion
• The last of the planned vendor visits occurred today - SUN. There will be a visit to NCSA to look at their computing - they are reputed to have a similar type of user base to us. Argonne is having an open house on the 16th - to unveil their new cave, powered by a Silicon Graphics.

Simulation and Event Generators - Patty McBride gave a status report on the work of the group. See her transparencies

• Lynn released a new STDHEP and updated all the interfaces to the standard generators
• Started on making a C++ version of STDHEP - had discussions with GEANT4 people, will talk with Pythia authors again - ensure all in sync.
• GEANT 4 project has made lots of progress - providing a toolkit - want sophisticated users.. In the end may be tricks to make it easy to use .... But not what developers are concentrating on. The first production release will come out at the end of the year- they seem to be working to stick to that.
• G3 -> G4 automatic conversion?? - probably not! More thinking about connections to standard CAD programs
• Patty would like feedback - what are we going to do about random numbers ?

Serial Media Working Group - Mike Diesburg reported that the group is basically waiting for the next generation of drives to arrive - then to begin testing again.

• It appears that the next Sony product will be in hand in time for purchases we need to make for Run II. Hope to have a prototype by December.
• Stephan has received upgraded microcode for the current generation of Sony AIT drives and he is testing this - not for reliability or lifetime, but to see if the partitioning now works.
• Sometime in December the SMWG will canvass all the vendors again - then start testing around January.
• There was a question about the test procedure for certifying drives and types and a request for it to be documented and available.
• Don Petravick pointed out that current plans call for the robot to be handed over to his department and to CDF if they choose to not use Enstore. The AIT drives in the robot are to be used for Enstore and Data Access tests and there is not current plan which calls for their use in tape drive testing.

Robot Purchase and Installation - Mark Leininger reported that the Robot installation was on schedule, even a little early. There are ongoing discussions on how to carry out the acceptance testing. Should they bring their own machines, or install on our machines? Training for 4 people - decide who, when? Meeting on Friday to discuss some of these issues. Nov 1st will start the acceptance tests.