PRACE – The European HPC InfrastructureLiz Sim (EPCC)

PRACE WP6 Operations – User Services Subtask Leader

2PRACE: HPC in Europe

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

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3PRACE: 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

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Tier-0European centres

Tier-1National centres

Tier-2Regional/University centres

capa

bili

ty

# of systems

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PRACE Members • April, 23rd 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-211528,

261557, and 283493

Complemented by ~ 50 M€

from PRACE members

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5PRACE: 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

– 6th Call for Proposals opens on 18th 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

• http://www.prace-ri.eu/Call-Announcements

6PRACE: 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

7PRACE: 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– http://www.prace-ri.eu/Best-Practice-Guides

• Technical work disseminated via >70 White Papers to benefit European researchers– http://www.prace-ri.eu/white-papers

• Centralised PRACE Helpdesk for all users

8PRACE: 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

9PRACE: HPC in Europe

The GrowingPRACE Family

PRACE-1IP all-hands and 2IP kick-off meeting in Barcelona, Sept. 2011PRACE-1IP all-hands and 2IP kick-off meeting in Barcelona, Sept. 2011