PRACE: Advancing European HPC Research Infrastructure

1. PRACEExperiences of an e-Infrastructure Flagship Project Thomas Eickerman – Jülich Supercomputing Centre

2. PRACEThe Partnership for Advance Computing in Europe is the European HPC Research Infrastructure • PRACE enables world-class science through large scale simulations • PRACE provides HPC services on leading edge capability systems on a diverse set of architectures • PRACE operates up to six Tier-0 systems as a single entity including user and application support • International non-for-profit Association with seat in Brussels; 20 members • Systems funded by hosting members with 100 Million € / 5 years each • Currently France, Germany, Italy, Spain; The Netherlands expected soon • PRACE offers its resources through a single pan-European peer review process • Governed by an independent Scientific Steering Committee

3. HET: The Scientific Case • Weather, Climatology, Earth Science • degree of warming, scenarios for our future climate. • understand and predict ocean properties and variations • weather and flood events • Astrophysics, Elementary particle physics, Plasma physics • systems, structures which span a large range of different length and time scales • quantum field theories like QCD, ITER • Material Science, Chemistry, Nanoscience • understanding complex materials, complex chemistry, nanoscience • the determination of electronic and transport properties • Life Science • system biology, chromatin dynamics, large scale protein dynamics, protein association and aggregation, supramolecular systems, medicine • Engineering • complex helicopter simulation, biomedical flows, gas turbines and internal combustion engines, forest fires, green aircraft, • virtual power plant

4. HPC on ESFRI Roadmap 2006 • HET“The Scientific Case for a European Super Computing Infrastructure” created by leading computational scientists from 5 key areas of computational science • PRACE as a horizontal RI has no own community that “fights” for it:Proven need and support by several communities was instrumental getting political support • Scientific Steering CommitteeUser communities need a prominent role in the RI governance to maintain their support

5. PRACE Timeline HPCEUR HET PRACEPreparatory PRACE MoU 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 EU-Grant: INFSO-RI-211528, 10 Mio. € PRACE Operation Phase PRACE Implementation Phase (1IP, 2IP) 23.4. 2010 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 June 9th, 2010 1st Council PRACE (AISBL), a legal entitywith seat in Brussels

6. Status and Achievements – Impact so far (1/2) • PRACE RI established as an international non-profit association (AISBL) in Brussels on April 23, 2010 • 20 member states (and associated countries) involved • 400 Mio € from France, Germany Italy, Spain for 2010-2014 • 70+ Mio € from EC for preparatory + implementation phase projects • Challenges and approaches taken • Increase level of commitment of member states along with progress of preparations: MoU  LoC  Mandate for partners to accede to association and sign funding agreements • Stepwise approach to integration: • Starting with coordinated national procurements • A possible future transition to joint procurements would require additional incentives for the national funding agencies (e.g. a significant EC contribution to the TCO) 6

7. Status and Achievements – Impact so far (2.2) • PRACE RI is operational and ramping up rapidly • First Tier-0 system operational: BlueGene / P in GCS@Juelich – the fastest Supercomputer in Europe • 2 calls for project proposals managed (in June and August) • 65 + 59 proposals asking for 1.472 + 2.874 Mio core hours • 328 + 363 Mio core hours granted to 10 + 9 projects • Principal investigators from 8 (5 / 5) countries • 2nd regular call published on Nov. 1st – 6 monthly calls will follow • 2nd Tier-0 system announced: 1.6 PFlops Bull Cluster in France, owned by GENCI, operated by CEA • User support mainly funded through FP7 project PRACE-1IP 7

8. Impact Assessment • Main objective is providing high-end HPC services to European Science and Engineering communities • Amount of resources granted, # projects granted, # countries,# companies, # relevant codes enabled, … • Results produced by the grants, e.g. number and impact of publications, … • Participation in PRACE Training events • Foster European HPC industry • STRATOS is an interest group where technology providers exchange ideas and information and breed joint activities • # and volume of joint projects stimulated (e.g. in FP7 Exascale call) ? • External input and advice is welcome • PRACE SSC, ERINA+, e-Infrastructures Observatory 8

9. High-End HPC Resources granted 9

10. The growingPRACE family PRACE-1IP Kick-off meeting in Garching

11. Backup slide: The ESFRI Vision for a European HPC service PRACE Tier-0 DEISA/PRACE capability Tier-1 Tier-2 # of systems • European HPC-facilities at the top of an HPC provisioning pyramid • Tier-0: 3-6 European Centres for Petaflop • Tier-1: National Centres • Tier-2: Regional/University Centres • Creation of a European HPC ecosystem • Scientific and industrial user communities • HPC service providers on all tiers • Grid Infrastructures • The European HPC hard- and software industry 11