PRACE – The European HPC Infrastructure Liz Sim (EPCC) PRACE WP6 Operations – User Services Subtask Leader

2 PRACE: HPC in Europe PRACE is an European HPC Research Infrastructure (RI) –an international non-profit association with seat in Brussels –to provide world class computing and data management resources –operating Tier-0 systems as a single service –open to all European public research through a peer review process –pan-European education and training effort –collaboration with industry and vendors The Preparation and Implementation of the PRACE RI is supported by a series of FP7-funded projects 2

3 PRACE: HPC in Europe The Mandate for PRACE: implement the European HPC Service European HPC facilities at the top of an HPC provisioning pyramid –Tier-0: 3-6 European Centres for multi-Petaflop –Tier-1: National Centres –Tier-2: Regional / University Centres Creation of a European HPC ecosystem –HPC service providers on all tiers –Scientific and industrial user communities –The European HPC hard- and software industry –Other e-Infrastructures 3 Tier-0 European centres Tier-1 National centres Tier-2 Regional/University centres capability # of systems

4 PRACE Members April, 23 rd 2010 creation of the legal entity (AISBL) PRACE with seat location in Brussels, Belgium 24 PRACE Members 68+ Million € from EC FP7 for preparatory & implementation Grants INFSO-RI , , and Complemented by ~ 50 M€ from PRACE members 4

5 PRACE: HPC in Europe Access to PRACE Systems PRACE is now running a successful pan-European service Access to multi-Petaflop Tier-0 systems –Includes: BlueGene/Q, Cray XE6, Bull –6 th Call for Proposals opens on 18 th September DECI (Distributed European Computing Initiative) –Enabling European research on >20 national Tier-1 systems BlueGene, IBM Power, Cray X*, clusters (including GPUs), … –2 calls for proposals each year –UK contributes both HECToR and BlueGene/Q resources for DECI

6 PRACE: HPC in Europe PRACE Applications Enabling Major activity in PRACE –Led by Alan Simpson (EPCC) Support for both Tier-0 and DECI Tier-1 projects –Similar to HECToR dCSEs Collaborations with major applications communities Developed the Unified European Applications Benchmark Suite Have enabled > 30 major European applications Funded until at least 2014

7 PRACE: HPC in Europe PRACE Training and Support PRACE has recently selected 6 Advanced Training Centres across Europe –Including EPCC PRACE has produced Best Practice Guides for major systems, and is working on more – Technical work disseminated via >70 White Papers to benefit European researchers – Centralised PRACE Helpdesk for all users

8 PRACE: HPC in Europe PRACE and UK Researchers UK participation in successful PRACE implementation projects is led by EPCC working with EPSRC and STFC PRACE supports UK researchers exploiting –…very high-end systems (Tier-0) –…and a wide variety of architectures (Tier-0+Tier-1) Petascaling work benefits UK researchers Access to Best Practice Guides and White Papers Influence strategic direction of European HPC Survey results and benchmarks useful for future procurements

9 PRACE: HPC in Europe The Growing PRACE Family PRACE-1IP all-hands and 2IP kick-off meeting in Barcelona, Sept. 2011