A Grid Middleware Extension for Scientific Visualization

Grid computing infrastructures denote interconnections of massively parallel and distributed computing resources for ubiquitous, integrated, and collabora-tive usage. While the majority of existing grid software constitutes high-perfor-mance and high-throughput batch processing, more and more applications require interactivity and visualization. The latter is supported through the Grid Visualization Kernel (GVK), a middleware extension for fast and efficient interconnection of distant simulation servers and visualization clients. The integration of GVK is provided by specific interface modules for commonly available visualization toolkits, while the actual interconnection is transpar-ently established between arbitrary points on the grid