A tool to execute ASSIST programs on globus-based grids

This article describes ASSISTCONF, a graphical user interface designed to execute ASSIST applications on Globus-based Grids. ASSIST (A Software development System based upon Integrated Skeleton Technology) is a new programming environment for the development of parallel and distributed high-performance applications. The main goals of ASSIST are allowing high-level programmability and software productivity for complex multidisciplinary applications, and performance portability across different platforms, including homogeneous parallel machines and cluster/Beowulf systems, heterogeneous clusters, and computational Grids. ASSISTCONF hides to the programmer the structure of the grid used and integrates the ASSIST Run Time System with the Globus middleware. The first version of ASSISTCONF was designed to manually configure an ASSIST application and to establish a mapping between the application components and the machines selected for its execution on the Grid. The new ASSISTCONF functionalities, such as authentication and execution authorization on the resources selected in the application mapping phase, and deployment on the selected resources of the ASSIST Run Time Support, the executable application components, and the application input data, allow the semi-automatic execution of an ASSIST application on a such environment.