The John von NeumannInstitute for Computing (NIC):

A survey of its computer facilitiesand its Europe-wide

computational science activities

Norbert Attig

NIC, Research Centre JülichGermany

• Founded in 1987 by - Research Centre Jülich (FZJ), - German Electron Synchrotron (DESY), - National Research Center for Information Technology First and one of three German national High-Performance Computing Centres

• Restructured in 1998, now supported by FZJ and DESYA third partner – Society for Heavy Ion Research (GSI) – will join NIC soon

John von Neumann Institute for Computing

Research Organisations in Germany

DFG Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft(German Research Council)Focus: university research

MPG Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (Society)Basic research in science and humanities

HGF Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft (Association)Application-oriented research in science and technology; large-scale facilities

FhG Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (Society)Research in technology

WGL Leibniz-Gemeinschaft (Association)Various smaller research units

Forschungszentrum Jülichin der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft

Centres of the Helmholtz Association

http://www.helmholtz.de

Forschungszentrum Jülichin der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft

Research Centre Jülich (FZJ)

Forschungszentrum Jülichin der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft

German Electron Synchrotron (DESY)

National Supercomputing Centre John von Neumann Institute for Computing

Mission

Enable scientists to solve grand challenge problems by operating a large-scale facility (Helmholtz mission)

Provision of supercomputing service Europe-wide

Support through research in computational science, mathematics and computer science, Grid computing

Education and training

Centre forParallel

ComputingDESY-

Zeuthen

Research GroupElementary Particle Physics

Central Institutefor

AppliedMathematics

(ZAM)

John von Neumann Institutefor Computing (NIC)

Management Boardof Directors:

Board Member of FZJBoard Member of DESYDirector of ZAM (FZJ)

ScientificCouncil

CompetenceGroups

forSupercomputing

Applications

Central Institutefor

AppliedMathematics

(ZAM)

National Supercomputing Centre

ProductionSupercomputerSystems, e.g.

IBM-SC, BG/L

Special PurposeSystems, e.g.

APEmille,apeNEXT

Research GroupComputational Biophysics

81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09

FPS AP/190 0.02

Cray M94 1.3Cray X-MP/48 0.9

Cray Y-MP/832 2.6Cray X-MP/22 0.4

Cray J90 3Cray J90 4 GFlops

Cray T90 22Cray SV1ex 32

Cray T3E-600 307

Intel Paragon 10

Suprenum 0.3

Cray T3E-1200 614

ZAMpano 20

IBM p690 Cluster 8920 GFlops

massively parallel

vector processor

SMP cluster

Cray T3E-600 307

Intel Paragon 10

Suprenum 0.3

Cray T3E-1200 614

IBM Blue Gene 5600 Gflops

Competence with Supercomputers

early deployment of new technologies

1312 processors, 9 TeraFlops, 5.6 TeraByte memory, 50 TeraByte disks, 2.2 PetaByte tape robot

Supercomputers at NIC

Jump: Jülich Multi-Processor IBM p690 Cluster

IBM Blue Gene/L, 5.6 TeraFlops (since July 2005)

Cray XD1, 72 processors

NIC Usage and Access

● Access

– Academia & research

– Industry

– Proposals accepted from Germany and Europe

● Procedure

– Weblink: www.fz-juelich.de/nic

– Scientific quality counts

– Peer review by NIC Scientific Council

– International referees

– 1 year grants

NIC Usage by Research Fields

Elementary Particle

Many Particle

Chemistry

OtherLife + Environment

Soft Matter

Materials Science

Origin of Users

Chemistry Many Particle Physics Elementary Particle Physics Other

National access

Origin of Users

European access(Collaborations)

Zagreb

Rome

Vienna

Roskilde

Coimbra

Athens

Origin of Users

European access(I3HP)

DESY

Edinburgh

Glasgow

Nicosia

Origin of Users

European access(NIC Initiative)

Zagreb

Nicosia

Warsaw

Prague

Bratislava

Budapest

Brno

Origin of Users

European access(DEISA partners)

CSC

RZG IPP Garching

SARA

EPCC

ECMWF

IDRIS

CINECA

BSC

LRZ

HLRS

NIC-TA offers:

1. Computer time on Germany’s 2nd largest super-computer for users within the context of I3HP

2. User support– workshops – training courses– detailed advice on request at NIC

I3HP: NIC-TA – Offer www.fz-juelich.de/nic/i3hp-nic-ta

The offer means quantitatively:

1. 1,500 proc. hours on IBM-SC Jump per month (funded by the EU for non-German users)≤ 3,000 proc. hours on IBM-SC Jump per month (funded by NIC, mainly for German users)

2. Grants for non-German users visiting NIC travel: ≤ 400 € per trip accomodation: ≤ 70 € per day

I3HP: NIC-TA – Value of the offer www.fz-juelich.de/nic/i3hp-nic-ta

Origin of Users

European access(I3HP)

DESY

Edinburgh

Glasgow

Nicosia

NIC offers

– its supercomputing facilities to research groups

in the new EU member states to an extend of

50,000 proc. hours per month

– options for scientific collaboration

– training courses on supercomputing and parallel

programming; participants from new EU member states will

receive a grant for their travel and accommodation expenses

next course: November 2005

NIC Initiative I www.fz-juelich.de/nic

NIC expects

– challenging applications

– sound scientific proposals

– parallel programs, using a substantial number of

processors simultaneously

– participation in joint initiatives towards a future

European high-end computing infrastructure

NIC Initiative II www.fz-juelich.de/nic

Origin of Users

European access(NIC Initiative)

Zagreb

Nicosia

Warsaw

Prague

Bratislava

Budapest

Brno

DEISA is like I3HP an EU infrastructure project

Partners: IDRIS, FZJ, RZG/IPP, CINECA, EPCC, CSC,

SARA, ECMWF, LRZ, BSC, HLRS

Goal: Establish a Distributed European

Infrastructure for Supercomputing

Applications

Access to NIC via DEISA www.deisa.org

DEISA Extreme Computing Initiative (DECI)

Project partners offer computer time for DECI applications

(up to 10% of the available computer time per centre)

Conditions:– International collaboration– Extreme computing demands for challenging projects– Workflow applications involving at least two platforms– Coupled applications involving more than one platform

Next Call for Proposals: Spring 2006

Access to NIC via DEISA www.deisa.org

remaining among the Top10 supercomputing centres worldwide with respect to - compute power - service - research

becoming a leading site in a future European supercomputing network

NIC works towards

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