How to make HPC happen in Europe

How to make HPC happen in Europe
How to make HPC happen in Europe

16/11/2015

High-performance computing (HPC) is one of today’s most important priorities.

There is an article written by Leonardo Flores Añover and Dr. Augusto Burgueño Arjona from the European Commission in Scientific Computing World: HPC 2015-16 which they discuss how and why Europe should play a leading role globally in HPC.

Leonardo_Flores_Anover_Commission_Europeenne            AAEAAugusto Burgueño Arjona

They argue that Europe can attain worldwide leadership in HPC, not for the sake of being the first to get the fastest machine, but to master this strategic technology and put it to the service of a more competitive and innovative Europe and to help us address our societal problems.

They write that with a differentiated strategy, sufficient investment, and political will, Europe has what it takes to be a global player and to achieve this ambitious goal. We believe that, with a common effort by all public and private actors in HPC – including EU member states, industry, academia, and the European Commission – Europe can make it happen.

Their rationale for such a combined effort is that the ICT revolution will over the next few years reach exascale computing; with forecasts suggesting that, by 2020, 25 billion devices will be connected to the Internet of Things (IoT)1 generating more than 2 Zettabytes of IP traffic every year. By then, about 40 Zettabytes of data will be created, replicated, and consumed in a single year2.

They promote HPC as the engine to power to this massively connected digital economy as HPC pervades everyday life. Weather forecasts, movie animations, and new drugs tests all depend on supercomputers. HPC is a critical tool in decision-making; while electricity grids, water supply networks, transportation (for example, truck and flight scheduling), and defence applications all use HPC-based simulation.

They continue by writing on:

  • Industrial competitiveness and the digital economy
  • Scientific leadership
  • Societal challenges
  • Developing exascale technology: a strategic choice
  • The European HPC strategy: They discuss how HPC governance in Europe has improved with the establishment of Prace11 in 2010 and the industry-led European Platform on HPC (ETP4HPC)12 in 2011. Prace is building a pan-European HPC infrastructure for scientific and engineering research accessible to all EU researchers through a single peer-review process, while the ETP4HPC has defined the Strategic Research Agenda in this domain.

You can continue reading Leonardo Flores Añover and Dr. Augusto Burgueño Arjona’s article in PDF  at:

http://www.scientific-computing.com/features/feature.php?feature_id=474

 

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For more information on HPC contact: office@etp4hpc.eu

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