May 4 — Demand for computing time for national large-scale simulation projects continues its steep increase in Germany. With the 15th GCS Large- Scale Call, the scientific steering committee of the Gauss Centre for Supercomputing (GCS) approved the allocation of in sum 1,648 million core hours of computing time to 21 scientifically outstanding national research projects. Both numbers mark all time highs in the history of GCS. The supported projects come from the fields of Chemistry, Earth and Environment, Elementary Particle Physics, Life Sciences, Nuclear and Atomic Physics, Plasma Physics, and Scientific Engineering. Researchers will have access to the GCS High Performance Computing (HPC) systems Hazel Hen of HLRS (High Performance Computing Center Stuttgart), JUQUEEN of JSC (Jülich Supercomputing Centre), and SuperMUC of LRZ (Leibniz Supercomputing Centre) for a period of 12 months, starting immediately.
For its 15th Call for Large-Scale Projects, the GCS received requests for 2,124 million core hours of computing time. This sets another new record in the history of GCS as, for the first time, the 2 billion mark of core hours was surpassed. Of the 21 supported projects, which fulfilled the strong and very strict qualification criteria overseen by the GCS Steering Committee, three research activities were assigned computing time in the triple-digit million bracket:
- Astrophysics: 145 million core hours on SuperMUC of LRZ for a project under leadership of Dr. Hans-Thomas Janka, Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Garching near Munich.
- Quantum Chromodynamics: 128 million core hours on JUQUEEN of JSC plus 55 million core hours on Hazel Hen of HLRS for a project under leadership of Prof. Dr. Zoltan Fodor, Bergische Universität Wuppertal.
- Scientific Engineering: 275 million core hours on Hazel Hen of HLRS plus 55 million core hours on JUQUEEN of JSC for a project under leadership of Dr.-Ing. Matthias Meinke, RWTH Aachen University.
“GCS is excited to support simulation projects of these excelling scopes as they clearly underline our claim of Germany being a world leader in High Performance Computing. Beyond dispute, they produce proof of us being at eye level with the largest international research projects such as the INCITE Program supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy,” states Prof. Thomas Lippert of JSC, GCS Chairman of the Board.
Computing time allocations for GCS Large-Scale Projects are granted based on scientific criteria and their technical feasibility through independent reviewers in a peer-review process led by the GCS Steering Committee. Computing time is available for a period of 12 months. The complete list of approved GCS Large-Scale Projects (15th Call) can be found at http://www.gauss-centre.eu/gauss-centre/EN/Projects/LargeScaleProjects/call-15.html
About GCS Large-Scale Projects
In accordance with the mission of the Gauss Centre for Super- computing, all scientists and researchers in Germany are eligible to apply for computing time on the petascale HPC systems of Germany’s leading supercomputing institution. Projects are classified as “large-scale” if they require more than 35 million core-hours in one year on a GCS member centre’s high-end system. Computing time on the GCS systems is allocated by the GCS Scientific Steering Committee to scientifically leading, ground-breaking projects which deal with complex, demanding, and innovative simulations that would not be possible without the GCS petascale infrastructure. The projects are evaluated via a strict peer-review process on the basis of the project’s scientific and technical excellence.
The GCS Calls for Large-Scale Projects application procedure and criteria for decision is described in detail at www.gauss-centre.eu/large-scale-application
About GCS
The Gauss Centre for Supercomputing (GCS) combines the three national supercom- puting centres HLRS (High Performance Computing Center Stuttgart), JSC (Jülich Supercomputing Centre), and LRZ (Leibniz Supercomputing Centre, Garching near Munich) into Germany’s Tier-0 supercomputing institution. Concertedly, the three centres provide the largest and most powerful supercomputing infrastructure in all of Europe to serve a wide range of industrial and research activities in various disciplines. They also provide top-class training and education for the national as well as the European High Performance Computing (HPC) community. GCS is the German member of PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe), an international non-profit association consisting of 25 member countries, whose representative organizations create a pan-European supercomputing infrastructure, providing access to computing and data management resources and services for large-scale scientific and engineering applications at the highest performance level.
GCS is jointly funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the federal states of Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia. It has its headquarters in Berlin/Germany. (www.gauss-centre.eu)
Source: GCS