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EU wants Europe to be supercomputing superpower

Exascale computing looks set to get a boost in Europe as the EU plans to double its investment in HPC.

By Tom Brewster, 15 Feb 2012 at 16:34

The European Commission today unveiled plans to make Europe a leading light in high-performance computing (HPC).

The EC said there had been a “relative decline in HPC use and capabilities,” but it hopes that will be reversed with a doubling of investment in supercomputing.

High Performance Computing is a crucial enabler for European industry and for more jobs in Europe.

The EU plans to increase investment in the industry from €630 million to €1.2 billion and run machines that can perform 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 tasks per second, otherwise known as exascale computing.

“High Performance Computing is a crucial enabler for European industry and for more jobs in Europe,” said Neelie Kroes, the EC’s vice president responsible for the Digital Agenda.

“It’s investments like HPC that deliver innovations improving daily life. We’ve got to invest smartly in this field because we cannot afford to leave it to our competitors.”

The EC wants to see greater use of HPC systems and services amongst industry players and SMEs.

HPC has traditionally been reserved for larger enterprises, due to the significant cost. Supercomputers can cost as much as €100 million or more just to build.

Major manufacturers do lease out usage of their HPC machines, however. Indeed, Intel told IT Pro last year that supercomputing was going to become much more mainstream in the coming years.

The EC said it would like to see “centres of excellence” established for software in scientific fields like energy, life-sciences and climate.

Andy Grant, an HPC expert at IBM, welcomed the announcement.

"It's not just good for us but good for the European economy," he told IT Pro.

"It's good that the EU is recognising importance in HPC. It's something the UK Government has been doing as well."

As for whether HPC capabilities could reach SMEs, Grant claimed there has been a lot of effort to make HPC more SME friendly.

"We can't say for certain the barrier for entry will come down but I would advise SMEs go to cloud providers and see if they can dip their feet in HPC," he added.

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Europe can be supercomputing power

The EU’s plan to increase investment in high-performance computing (HPC) is to be applauded. It demonstrates a clear understanding of how important this technology can be for industry and jobs across Europe – especially in these difficult economic times.

It is good to see the UK setting the pace here following the government’s plans to pump £145 million into supercomputing. HPC gives manufacturers, engineering companies, research organisations and many other businesses the opportunity to quickly understand complex issues, achieve more accurate and predictable outcomes and make product development faster and more efficient.

Critically, this should enable businesses to develop exciting new products and services and allow the government to become an ‘exporter of innovation’. The process can also contribute to renewed economic recovery by positively impacting on GDP.

If this potential is to be realised, it is vital that HPC is accessible not just to large enterprises - to which it has previously been confined for cost reasons – but also to small businesses, this will be critical in driving innovation and helping the UK exit the downturn.

The good news is we are now seeing the emergence of a new delivery model for HPC, which Bull has helped to pioneer, known as HPC-on-demand. This approach gives users the opportunity to buy access to computing resource rather than investing upfront in IT systems. This opens out the technology to SME businesses, which have basic computing resources, but cannot invest further and would rather outsource hardware and support to focus on their core business.

Released from the shackles of technology, such organisations are free to innovate. With HPC-on-demand, they can avoid the cost of buying and maintaining physical infrastructures while still having access to high-performance tools for innovation. The UK economy, and the wider European economic environment, will benefit as a result.

Andrew Carr, sales and marketing director, Bull UK & Ireland

By Andrew_Carr on Thursday Feb 23

Europe can be a supercomputing power

Andrew Carr, sales and marketing director, Bull UK & Ireland

The EU’s plan to increase investment in high-performance computing (HPC) is to be applauded. It demonstrates a clear understanding of how important this technology can be for industry and jobs across Europe – especially in these difficult economic times.

It is good to see the UK setting the pace here following the government’s plans to pump £145 million into supercomputing. HPC gives manufacturers, engineering companies, research organisations and many other businesses the opportunity to quickly understand complex issues, achieve more accurate and predictable outcomes and make product development faster and more efficient.

Critically, this should enable businesses to develop exciting new products and services and allow the government to become an ‘exporter of innovation’. The process can also contribute to renewed economic recovery by positively impacting on GDP.

If this potential is to be realised, it is vital that HPC is accessible not just to large enterprises - to which it has previously been confined for cost reasons – but also to small businesses, this will be critical in driving innovation and helping the UK exit the downturn.

The good news is we are now seeing the emergence of a new delivery model for HPC, which Bull has helped to pioneer, known as HPC-on-demand. This approach gives users the opportunity to buy access to computing resource rather than investing upfront in IT systems. This opens out the technology to SME businesses, which have basic computing resources, but cannot invest further and would rather outsource hardware and support to focus on their core business.

Released from the shackles of technology, such organisations are free to innovate. With HPC-on-demand, they can avoid the cost of buying and maintaining physical infrastructures while still having access to high-performance tools for innovation. The UK economy, and the wider European economic environment, will benefit as a result.