1. U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science Advanced Scientific Computing Research Program NERSC Users Group Meeting Department of Energy Update September 17, 2007 Barb Helland barbara.helland@science.doe.gov 301-903-3127 Yukiko Sekine yukiko.sekine@science.doe.gov 301-903-5997

2. U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science Advanced Scientific Computing Research Program 2 Sept. 17, 2007NERSC Users Group Meeting Department of Energy Organizational Structure

3. U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science Advanced Scientific Computing Research Program 3 Sept. 17, 2007NERSC Users Group Meeting ASCR’s Mission The mission of the Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program is to deliver forefront computational and networking capabilities to scientists nation-wide that enable them to extend the frontiers of science, answering critical questions that range from the function of living cells to the power of fusion energy. In the past two decades, leadership in scientific computation has become a cornerstone of the Department’s strategy to ensure the security of the nation and succeed in its science, energy, environmental quality, and national security missions.

4. U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science Advanced Scientific Computing Research Program 4 Sept. 17, 2007NERSC Users Group Meeting Facilities Division Draft HPC Strategic Plan ASCR’s ten-year “terascale to exascale” strategic plan will focus primarily on HPC computing resources and research and evaluation testbeds, and the investment needed to stand-up prototypes at the extreme-scale – hundreds of petaflops and beyond – for scientific discovery in the 2014- 2017 timeframe. The key strategic principles that guide ASCR facility investments include: –Provide support for a broad range of scientific disciplines. –Tightly couple pioneering scientific applications and a portion of ASCR’s computer science and applied mathematics portfolio with the development of the next generation of HPC resources. –Identify and conquer barriers to success while continually evaluating both risk and reward. –Maintain a balance between high performance production and leadership class computing with input from the Advanced Scientific Computing Advisory Committee (ASCAC) and the mission needs of the other program offices in the Office of Science www.sc.doe.gov/ascr/Misc/ASCRFacilitiesStrategicPlan.pdf

5. U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science Advanced Scientific Computing Research Program 5 Sept. 17, 2007NERSC Users Group Meeting NERSC and LCFS’ Differences High Performance Production Computing Facility (NERSC) –Delivers high-end capacity computing to entire DOE SC research community –Large number of projects (300) –Large number of users (2500+) –Medium- to very-large-scale projects that occasionally need a very high capability –Annual allocations Leadership Computing Facilities (OLCF and ALCF) –Delivers highest computational capability –Small number of projects (20-30) –Small number of users (300) –Computationally intensive projects that require the highest capability available –Multiple-year allocations through Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (INCITE)

6. U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science Advanced Scientific Computing Research Program 6 Sept. 17, 2007NERSC Users Group Meeting House Energy and Water Development Appropriations Report (H.R. 2641) ADVANCED SCIENTIFIC COMPUTING RESEARCH The Committee recommendation is $340,198,000, the same as the budget request and an increase of $56,783,000 over the current fiscal year. The Committee commends the Office of Science and the Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research for their efforts to provide cutting-edge capabilities to meet current scientific computational needs, and at the same time to extend the boundaries of that cutting-edge into the next generation of high-performance scientific computers and supporting software. Perhaps no other area of research at the Department is so critical to sustaining U.S. leadership in science and technology, revolutionizing the way science is done, and improving research productivity.

7. U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science Advanced Scientific Computing Research Program 7 Sept. 17, 2007NERSC Users Group Meeting Senate Appropriations Energy and Water Development Subcommittee Report (110-127) ADVANCED SCIENTIFIC COMPUTING RESEARCH The Committee provides $334,898,000 for Advanced Scientific Computing Research. The increase of $7,700,000 is for the Oak Ridge leadership Computing Facility to maintain budget and cost schedule. The Committee has also included language in the NNSA Advanced Simulation and Computing Program to encourage the Office of Science and the NNSA to work together to establish a high- performance computing capability within the Department by joining the capabilities of both program to support advanced computing architecture; improvements in cyber security; and the development of advanced software and algorithms to increase the speed and efficiency of existing and future systems. The Committee does not support the Department transferring $19,000,000 to the Department of Defense to play a minor role in that effort. Instead, the Committee has shifted $13,000,000 from the Office of Science to the NNSA Advanced Computing and Simulation Program to re-establish the Department’s leadership role in high-performance computing.

8. U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science Advanced Scientific Computing Research Program 8 Sept. 17, 2007NERSC Users Group Meeting Allocation of NERSC Resources 80-85% -- Office of Science mission related –Call for proposals issued for NERSC resources –Dr. Orbach establishes allocations for Program Offices –Associate Directors or their designees review proposals in their area and determine final allocations –New allocation year starts mid January, 2008 10% --Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (INCITE) program –Provides Office of Science computing resources to a small number of computationally intensive research projects of large scale, that can make high-impact scientific advances through the use of a large allocation of computer time and data storage –Open to national and international researchers, including industry –No requirement of DOE Office of Science funding –Peer and computational readiness reviewed Up to 10% -- Reserved for Director, Office of Science

9. U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science Advanced Scientific Computing Research Program 9 Sept. 17, 2007NERSC Users Group Meeting NERSC Performance Measures DOE reviews NERSC’s effectiveness through various performance measures: –PART Metric: Over 70% of computing cycles used on Seaborg was for jobs that required at least 1/8 (768) processors of the total resource [FY07 OA]. –The 2006 User Satisfaction Survey showed excellent overall satisfaction – 6.3/7.0 [4QControl Review]. Additional metrics to be recommended in the Operations Assessment Panel Report for FY 2008

10. U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science Advanced Scientific Computing Research Program 10 Sept. 17, 2007NERSC Users Group Meeting NERSC Mission and You From ASCR’s Mission: “…deliver forefront computational and networking capabilities to scientists nation-wide that enable them to extend the frontiers of science” NERSC delivers High-Performance Computational Resources and Support very effectively. And… we cannot do it without the USERS! –We need your feedback through User Satisfaction Survey. –We acknowledge NERSC in Publications. Everything is about Enabling Scientific Discovery.