LHC Computing – the First 3 Decades

Computing for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN arguably started shortly after the commencement of data taking at the previous machine – LEP[1] – some would argue it was even before. Without specifying an exact date, it was certainly prior to when today’s large(st) collaborations, namely ATLAS and CMS, had formed and been approved and before the LHC itself was given the official go-ahead at the 100^th meeting of the CERN Council in 1995.

Just as with LEP computing, the challenges looked at some (many) points both insurmountable and the costs unaffordable. At the time of writing, we have perhaps only reached a false summit but we are now joined by other disciplines facing similar issues. Thus, we can look forward to the future – both of the LHC and any eventual “successor” machines, with cautious optimism.

[1] The story of computing for LEP is at least partially told in https://zenodo.org/record/4139583.