<Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards . The specific problem is: Talk: Worldwide LHC Computing Grid #Inconsistences Please help improve this article if you can . (March 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> The Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG), formerly (until 2006) the LHC Computing Grid (LCG), is an international collaborative project that consists of a grid - based computer network infrastructure incorporating over 170 computing centers in 42 countries, as of 2017 . It was designed by CERN to handle the prodigious volume of data produced by Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments . </P> <P> By 2012, data from over 300 trillion (3 × 10) LHC proton - proton collisions had been analyzed, and LHC collision data was being produced at approximately 25 petabytes per year . As of 2017, The LHC Computing Grid is the world's largest computing grid comprising over 170 computing facilities in a worldwide network across 42 countries . </P> <P> The Large Hadron Collider at CERN was designed to prove or disprove the existence of the Higgs boson, an important but elusive piece of knowledge that had been sought by particle physicists for over 40 years . A very powerful particle accelerator was needed, because Higgs bosons might not be seen in lower energy experiments, and because vast numbers of collisions would need to be studied . Such a collider would also produce unprecedented quantities of collision data requiring analysis . Therefore, advanced computing facilities were needed to process the data . </P>

How much data does the large hadron collider produce