Using Electron Microscope beyond 15,000 km (from Amsterdam)

Using Electron Microscope beyond 15,000 km (from Amsterdam)

A joint research team consisting of the Cybermedia Center of Osaka University, University of California in San Diego (USA) and National Center for High-Performance Computing (Taiwan) succeeded in an experiment in which an extra-high voltage electron microscope owned by Osaka University and famous for using the world's highest voltage was remote-controlled via the internet from San Diego to transfer observed images to Amsterdam (Netherlands). At the same time, the team in Taiwan analyzed the observed images using computers in Osaka University, San Diego and Taiwan, and displayed them as three-dimensional images (Fig. 1). This experiment was implemented using the next-generation high-speed internet extending to Japan, USA and Europe, and middleware developed by the group in San Diego. The success of this experiment has enabled analysis and observation, at any location throughout the world, of data transferred from valuable observation equipment. It is expected that such analysis and observation will contribute greatly to scientific development in the 21st century.

Fig. 1: Display example of three-dimensional images created during the experiment
(provided by National Center for High-Performance Computing)
This experiment was implemented as a demonstration of the telescience portal of iGrid2002 held in Amsterdam from October 23 to 26.

For this experiment, high-speed internet research networks in Japan (JGN, APAN), USA (Internet2) and Europe (SURFnet) cooperated for the first time to construct and utilize a huge network extending to three continents via IPv6 (Fig. 2). This is an achievement of the biogrid technology that we are promoting.

Fig. 2 Network configuration of iGrid2002
What is iGrid
iGrid is an international event held every 2 years from 1998 to exhibit the possibilities achieved by wide-area, high-speed networks and middleware, and the applications required to use it. This year in particular, various demonstrations were carried out showing the new scientific challenges opened up by 10Gbps high-speed networks.