The John von Neumann Institute for Computing (NIC): A survey of its computer facilities and its Europe-wide computational science activities Norbert Attig NIC, Research Centre Jülich Germany

Founded in 1987 by - Research Centre Jülich (FZJ), - German Electron Synchrotron (DESY), - National Research Center for Information Technology First and one of three German national High-Performance Computing Centres Restructured in 1998, now supported by FZJ and DESY A third partner – Society for Heavy Ion Research (GSI) – will join NIC soon John von Neumann Institute for Computing

Research Organisations in Germany DFGDeutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Council) Focus: university research MPGMax-Planck-Gesellschaft (Society) Basic research in science and humanities HGFHelmholtz-Gemeinschaft (Association) Application-oriented research in science and technology; large-scale facilities FhGFraunhofer-Gesellschaft (Society) Research in technology WGLLeibniz-Gemeinschaft (Association) Various smaller research units

Forschungszentrum Jülich in der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft Centres of the Helmholtz Association

Forschungszentrum Jülich in der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft Research Centre Jülich (FZJ)

Forschungszentrum Jülich in der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft German Electron Synchrotron (DESY)

National Supercomputing Centre John von Neumann Institute for Computing Mission Enable scientists to solve grand challenge problems by operating a large-scale facility (Helmholtz mission) Provision of supercomputing service  Europe-wide Support through research in computational science, mathematics and computer science, Grid computing Education and training

Centre for Parallel Computing DESY- Zeuthen Research Group Elementary Particle Physics Central Institute for Applied Mathematics (ZAM) John von Neumann Institute for Computing (NIC) Management Board of Directors: Board Member of FZJ Board Member of DESY Director of ZAM (FZJ) Scientific Council Competence Groups for Supercomputing Applications Central Institute for Applied Mathematics (ZAM) National Supercomputing Centre Production Supercomputer Systems, e.g. IBM-SC, BG/L Special Purpose Systems, e.g. APEmille, apeNEXT Research Group Computational Biophysics

FPS AP/ Cray M Cray X-MP/ Cray Y-MP/ Cray X-MP/ Cray J90 3 Cray J90 4 GFlops Cray T90 22 Cray SV1ex 32 Cray T3E Intel Paragon 10 Suprenum 0.3 Cray T3E ZAMpano 20 IBM p690 Cluster 8920 GFlops massively parallel vector processor SMP cluster Cray T3E Intel Paragon 10 Suprenum 0.3 Cray T3E IBM Blue Gene 5600 Gflops Competence with Supercomputers early deployment of new technologies

1312 processors, 9 TeraFlops, 5.6 TeraByte memory, 50 TeraByte disks, 2.2 PetaByte tape robot Supercomputers at NIC Jump: Jülich Multi-Processor IBM p690 Cluster IBM Blue Gene/L, 5.6 TeraFlops (since July 2005) Cray XD1, 72 processors

NIC Usage and Access ● Access – Academia & research – Industry – Proposals accepted from Germany and Europe ● Procedure – Weblink: – Scientific quality counts – Peer review by NIC Scientific Council – International referees – 1 year grants

NIC Usage by Research Fields Elementary Particle Many Particle Chemistry Other Life + Environment Soft Matter Materials Science

Origin of Users Chemistry Many Particle Physics Elementary Particle Physics Other National access

Origin of Users European access (Collaborations) Zagreb Rome Vienna Roskilde Coimbra Athens

Origin of Users European access (I3HP) DESY Edinburgh Glasgow Nicosia

Origin of Users European access (NIC Initiative) Zagreb Nicosia Warsaw Prague Bratislava Budapest Brno

Origin of Users European access (DEISA partners) CSC RZG IPP Garching SARA EPCC ECMWF IDRIS CINECA BSC LRZ HLRS

NIC-TA offers: 1.Computer time on Germany’s 2 nd largest super- computer for users within the context of I3HP 2.User support –workshops –training courses –detailed advice on request at NIC I3HP: NIC-TA – Offer

The offer means quantitatively: 1. 1,500 proc. hours on IBM-SC Jump per month (funded by the EU for non-German users) ≤ 3,000 proc. hours on IBM-SC Jump per month (funded by NIC, mainly for German users) 2.Grants for non-German users visiting NIC  travel: ≤ 400 € per trip  accomodation: ≤ 70 € per day I3HP: NIC-TA – Value of the offer

Origin of Users European access (I3HP) DESY Edinburgh Glasgow Nicosia

NIC offers –its supercomputing facilities to research groups in the new EU member states to an extend of 50,000 proc. hours per month –options for scientific collaboration –training courses on supercomputing and parallel programming; participants from new EU member states will receive a grant for their travel and accommodation expenses next course: November 2005 NIC Initiative I

NIC expects –challenging applications –sound scientific proposals –parallel programs, using a substantial number of processors simultaneously –participation in joint initiatives towards a future European high-end computing infrastructure NIC Initiative II

Origin of Users European access (NIC Initiative) Zagreb Nicosia Warsaw Prague Bratislava Budapest Brno

DEISA is like I3HP an EU infrastructure project Partners: IDRIS, FZJ, RZG/IPP, CINECA, EPCC, CSC, SARA, ECMWF, LRZ, BSC, HLRS Goal:Establish a Distributed European Infrastructure for Supercomputing Applications Access to NIC via DEISA

DEISA Extreme Computing Initiative (DECI) Project partners offer computer time for DECI applications (up to 10% of the available computer time per centre) Conditions: –International collaboration –Extreme computing demands for challenging projects –Workflow applications involving at least two platforms –Coupled applications involving more than one platform Next Call for Proposals: Spring 2006 Access to NIC via DEISA

remaining among the Top10 supercomputing centres worldwide with respect to - compute power - service - research becoming a leading site in a future European supercomputing network NIC works towards