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Plans Underway to Replace Netherlands Supercomputer


AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands, April 16 -- On April 10, the tender for the successor of the Huygens national supercomputer was signed by the Publications Office of the European Community. This officially launches the effort to replace the Huygens system located at SARA. The process will start with a pre-qualification of vendors for the new supercomputer.

Huygens has been used since August 2008 and is among other systems used for research in areas including clean energy, climate change, water management, noise reduction and healthcare. The current system is no longer sufficient since the demand for large-scale, research computing capacity has increased. In addition, the system is reaching its end of life. Replacement of the Huygens national supercomputer is therefore urgent and necessary for both science and industry in the Netherlands.

Preparations for the supercomputer’s replacement have already started last year. In mid 2011, a large number of end users were surveyed, identifying their needs and requirements. A selection benchmark for the new system has been created based on feedback from users and their applications. In addition, extensive measurements and analysis have been carried out regarding the use of the system resources including memory, I/O, user applications, and scalability. Application performance, low power consumption and flexible on-demand availability are priorities for the system’s selection.

Dr. Anwar Osseyran, Director SARA: "To remain competitive in the future, it is of great importance for the Netherlands that we have a system with sufficient power next year. This will put the Netherlands in a strong position in the field of information science."

The replacement of Huygens is being managed by SARA, through coordination with SURF. Through an agreement from the ICTRegie in December 2008, SURF was established by ICT through government funding for scientific research. The national supercomputer is part of this infrastructure. SARA is integrating with SURF as a result of budgetary and organizational consolidation. At this time, meetings are being held between the SURF Foundation and SARA regarding this integration.

About SARA

SARA supports researchers in the Netherlands and works closely with the academic community and industry. For more than 40 years, SARA has provided ICT research infrastructure, as well as services and support for high performance computing, data storage, visualization, networking, cloud and e-Science. It also develops innovative IT solutions.

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Source: SARA

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