Supercomputing in Europe
Encyclopedia
Several centers for supercomputing exist across Europe
, and distributed access to them is coordinated by European initiatives to facilitate high-performance computing
. One such initiative, the HPC Europa
project, fits within the Distributed European Infrastructure for Supercomputing Applications (DEISA), which was formed in 2002 as a consortium of eleven supercomputing centers from seven European countries. Operating within the CORDIS
framework, HPC Europa aims to provide access to supercomputers across Europe.
In June 2011, France
's Tera 100
was certified the fastest supercomputer in Europe, and ranked 9th in the world. It was the first petaflops-scale supercomputer designed and
built in Europe.
in Sofia
operates an IBM
Blue Gene
/P supercomputer, which offers high-performance processing to the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
and Sofia University
, among other organizations. This system is one of the few supercomputers in Eastern Europe
, and the only one in the Balkans
. The system was on the TOP500
list until November 2009, when it ranked as number 379.
operates the Tera 100
machine in the Research and Technology Computing Center
in Essonne
, Île-de-France
. The Tera 100 has a peak processing speed of 1,050 teraflops, making it the fastest supercomputer in Europe as of 2011. Built by Groupe Bull
, it has 140,000 processors.
The National Computer Center of Higher Education
(French acronym: CINES) was established in Montpellier
in 1999, and offers computer services for research and higher education. It operates the Jade SGI
Altix
system, which has a peak processing speed of 237 teraflops, and is the third-fastest supercomputer in France, the second-fastest being a commercial system operated by a French manufacturing company.
jointly own the JUGENE
, the fastest supercomputer in Germany, at the Forschungszentrum Jülich in North Rhine-Westphalia
. JUGENE is based on IBM's Blue Gene/P architecture, and in June 2011 was ranked the 12th-fastest computer in the world by TOP500. The Leibniz-Rechenzentrum
, a supercomputing center in Munich
, houses the SuperMUC
system which is expected to begin operating in 2012 at a processing speed of 3 petaflops. This will be, at the time it enters service, the fastest supercomputer in Europe.
The High Performance Computing Center
in Stuttgart
maintains a large number of medium-sized computing platforms, rather than possessing a small number of very high-end systems. The UNICORE
initiative, a grid computing
project by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, aims to provide seamless access to distributed computing resources such as supercomputers or cluster systems.
, a continent-wide distributed computing
system, is headquartered at the Science Park
in Amsterdam
.
began in 2009 as a nationwide computing infrastructure. The Galera computer cluster at the Gdansk University of Technology
was ranked 299th on the TOP500 list in November 2010.
The Barcelona Supercomputing Center
is located at the Technical University of Catalonia
, and operates the 94.21-teraflop MareNostrum
computer. The Supercomputing and Visualization Center of Madrid
(CeSViMa) research center at the Technical University of Madrid
operates the 72-teraflop Magerit
supercomputer, which uses 86 IBM BladeCenter
s. The Spanish Supercomputing Network
furthermore provides access to several supercomputers distributed across Spain.
's Royal Institute of Technology
operates the Lindgren supercomputer, which consists of 36,000 processors and operates at 305 teraflops.
was founded in 1991 and is operated by ETH Zurich
. It is based in Manno
, Ticino
, and provides supercomputing services to national research institutions and Swiss universities, as well as the international CERN
organisation and MeteoSchweiz, the Swiss weather service. In February 2011, the center placed an order for a Cray XMT
massively parallel
supercomputer.
The IBM Aquasar supercomputer became operational at ETH Zurich
in 2010. It uses hot water cooling
to achieve heat efficiency, with the computation-heated water used to heat the buildings of the university campus.
supercomputer center at the University of Edinburgh
was established in 1990. The HECToR
project at the University of Edinburgh provides supercomputing services using a 360-teraflop Cray XE6
system, the fastest supercomputer in the UK. The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts
(ECMWF) in Reading, Berkshire
, operates a 100-teraflop IBM pSeries-based system.
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, and distributed access to them is coordinated by European initiatives to facilitate high-performance computing
High-performance computing
High-performance computing uses supercomputers and computer clusters to solve advanced computation problems. Today, computer systems approaching the teraflops-region are counted as HPC-computers.-Overview:...
. One such initiative, the HPC Europa
HPC Europa
HPC Europa is a European initiative for high performance computing. It fits within the Distributed European Infrastructure for Supercomputing Applications was formed in 2002 as a consortium of eleven supercomputing centers from seven European countries within the CORDIS framework....
project, fits within the Distributed European Infrastructure for Supercomputing Applications (DEISA), which was formed in 2002 as a consortium of eleven supercomputing centers from seven European countries. Operating within the CORDIS
CORDIS
CORDIS, the Community Research and Development Information Service, is an interactive information portal available at http://cordis.europa.eu to support European research and innovation cooperation.-Aims:CORDIS’s principal aims are:...
framework, HPC Europa aims to provide access to supercomputers across Europe.
In June 2011, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
's Tera 100
Tera 100
Tera 100 is a supercomputer built by Bull SA for the French Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique.It was turned on on May 26, 2010. The computer, which is located in Essonne is able to sustain around 1 petaFLOPs maximum performance and a peak at 1.25 petaFLOPs. It has 4300 Bullx Series S servers ,...
was certified the fastest supercomputer in Europe, and ranked 9th in the world. It was the first petaflops-scale supercomputer designed and
built in Europe.
Bulgaria
The National Center for Supercomputing ApplicationsNational Center for Supercomputing Applications (Bulgaria)
The National Center for Supercomputing Applications is a research institution located in Sofia, Bulgaria. It was established in 2008 with the aim of promoting and regulating high-performance processing operations of scientific information....
in Sofia
Sofia
Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated...
operates an IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
Blue Gene
Blue Gene
Blue Gene is a computer architecture project to produce several supercomputers, designed to reach operating speeds in the PFLOPS range, and currently reaching sustained speeds of nearly 500 TFLOPS . It is a cooperative project among IBM Blue Gene is a computer architecture project to produce...
/P supercomputer, which offers high-performance processing to the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences is the National Academy of Bulgaria, established in 1869. The Academy is autonomous and has a Society of Academicians, Correspondent Members and Foreign Members...
and Sofia University
Sofia University
The St. Clement of Ohrid University of Sofia or Sofia University is the oldest higher education institution in Bulgaria, founded on 1 October 1888...
, among other organizations. This system is one of the few supercomputers in Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
, and the only one in the Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
. The system was on the TOP500
TOP500
The TOP500 project ranks and details the 500 most powerful known computer systems in the world. The project was started in 1993 and publishes an updated list of the supercomputers twice a year...
list until November 2009, when it ranked as number 379.
France
The Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternativesCommissariat à l'Énergie Atomique
The Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives or CEA, is a French “public establishment related to industrial and commercial activities” whose mission is to develop all applications of nuclear power, both civilian and military...
operates the Tera 100
Tera 100
Tera 100 is a supercomputer built by Bull SA for the French Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique.It was turned on on May 26, 2010. The computer, which is located in Essonne is able to sustain around 1 petaFLOPs maximum performance and a peak at 1.25 petaFLOPs. It has 4300 Bullx Series S servers ,...
machine in the Research and Technology Computing Center
Research and Technology Computing Center (France)
The Research and Technology Computing Center is a supercomputing center in Île-de-France.The center started operation in 2003 and is part of the CEA scientific computing complex in Bruyères-le-Châtel...
in Essonne
Essonne
Essonne is a French department in the region of Île-de-France. It is named after the Essonne River.It was formed on 1 January 1968 when Seine-et-Oise was split into smaller departments.- History :...
, Île-de-France
Île-de-France (région)
Île-de-France is the wealthiest and most populated of the twenty-two administrative regions of France, composed mostly of the Paris metropolitan area....
. The Tera 100 has a peak processing speed of 1,050 teraflops, making it the fastest supercomputer in Europe as of 2011. Built by Groupe Bull
Groupe Bull
-External links:* * — Friends, co-workers and former employees of Bull and Honeywell* *...
, it has 140,000 processors.
The National Computer Center of Higher Education
National Computer Center for Higher Education (France)
The National Computer Center of Higher Education offers computer services for research and higher education in France....
(French acronym: CINES) was established in Montpellier
Montpellier
-Neighbourhoods:Since 2001, Montpellier has been divided into seven official neighbourhoods, themselves divided into sub-neighbourhoods. Each of them possesses a neighbourhood council....
in 1999, and offers computer services for research and higher education. It operates the Jade SGI
Silicon Graphics
Silicon Graphics, Inc. was a manufacturer of high-performance computing solutions, including computer hardware and software, founded in 1981 by Jim Clark...
Altix
Altix
Altix is a line of servers and supercomputers produced by Silicon Graphics , based on Intel processors. It succeeded the MIPS/IRIX-based Origin 3000 servers....
system, which has a peak processing speed of 237 teraflops, and is the third-fastest supercomputer in France, the second-fastest being a commercial system operated by a French manufacturing company.
Germany
The Jülich Supercomputing Centre (JSC) and the Gauss Centre for SupercomputingGauss Centre for Supercomputing
The Gauss Centre for Supercomputing is a research institute and a supercomputer center in Germany.-See also:* TOP500* High Performance Computing Center, Stuttgart* Supercomputing in Europe-External links:*...
jointly own the JUGENE
JUGENE
JUGENE is a supercomputer built by IBM for Forschungszentrum Jülich in Germany. It is based on the Blue Gene/P and is the successor to the JUBL based on an earlier design. It was at the introduction the second fastest computer in the world. It is currently the ninth fastest computer in the world...
, the fastest supercomputer in Germany, at the Forschungszentrum Jülich in North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia is the most populous state of Germany, with four of the country's ten largest cities. The state was formed in 1946 as a merger of the northern Rhineland and Westphalia, both formerly part of Prussia. Its capital is Düsseldorf. The state is currently run by a coalition of the...
. JUGENE is based on IBM's Blue Gene/P architecture, and in June 2011 was ranked the 12th-fastest computer in the world by TOP500. The Leibniz-Rechenzentrum
Leibniz-Rechenzentrum
The Leibniz Supercomputing Centre is an European supercomputing centre in Garching near Munich. The centre provides supercomputer resources for research and access to the Munich Scientific Network ; it is connected to the Deutsches Forschungsnetz with a 10 Gbit/s link...
, a supercomputing center in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, houses the SuperMUC
Supermuc
The SuperMUC is the name of a new supercomputer of the Leibniz-Rechenzentrum in Garching near Munich which will provide a sustained computing power in the Petaflop/s regime. It will be the successor of the Höchstleistungsrechner Bayern II . The Leibniz Supercomputing Centre will become a european...
system which is expected to begin operating in 2012 at a processing speed of 3 petaflops. This will be, at the time it enters service, the fastest supercomputer in Europe.
The High Performance Computing Center
High Performance Computing Center, Stuttgart
The High Performance Computing Center in Stuttgart Germany is a research institute and a supercomputer center....
in Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
maintains a large number of medium-sized computing platforms, rather than possessing a small number of very high-end systems. The UNICORE
UNICORE
UNICORE is a Grid computing technology that provides seamless, secure, and intuitive access to distributed Grid resources such as supercomputers or cluster systems and information stored in databases. UNICORE was developed in two projects funded by the German ministry for education and research...
initiative, a grid computing
Grid computing
Grid computing is a term referring to the combination of computer resources from multiple administrative domains to reach a common goal. The grid can be thought of as a distributed system with non-interactive workloads that involve a large number of files...
project by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, aims to provide seamless access to distributed computing resources such as supercomputers or cluster systems.
Netherlands
The European Grid InfrastructureEuropean Grid Infrastructure
The European Grid Infrastructure refers to a series of efforts to provide access to high-performance computing resources across Europe using grid computing techniques. The EGI links centres in different European countries to support international research in many scientific disciplines...
, a continent-wide distributed computing
Distributed computing
Distributed computing is a field of computer science that studies distributed systems. A distributed system consists of multiple autonomous computers that communicate through a computer network. The computers interact with each other in order to achieve a common goal...
system, is headquartered at the Science Park
Science Park Amsterdam
Science Park Amsterdam is a science park in stadsdeel Oost/Watergraafsmeer in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, with accommodations for science and business and housing. Science Park Amsterdam focusses on IT and life sciences. Among the knowledge-based institutions present at the science park there are...
in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
.
Poland
The Polish Grid Infrastructure PL-GridPolish Grid Infrastructure PL-Grid
Polish Grid Infrastructure PL-Grid, a nationwide computing infrastructure, built in 2009-2011, under the scientific project PL-Grid - Polish Infrastructure for Supporting Computational Science in the European Research Space...
began in 2009 as a nationwide computing infrastructure. The Galera computer cluster at the Gdansk University of Technology
Gdansk University of Technology
The Gdańsk University of Technology is a technical university in Gdańsk-Wrzeszcz, and one of the oldest universities in Poland. It has nine faculties and more than 24 thousand undergraduate, as well as about 400 doctoral students...
was ranked 299th on the TOP500 list in November 2010.
Spain
Barcelona Supercomputing Center
Barcelona Supercomputing Center , also known by the acronym BSC, is a public research center located in Barcelona, Spain. It hosts MareNostrum, Europe's 25th most powerful supercomputer as of November 2009....
is located at the Technical University of Catalonia
Technical University of Catalonia
The Technical University of Catalonia , sometimes called UPC-Barcelona Tech, is the largest engineering university in Catalonia, Spain. The objectives of the UPC are based on internationalization, as it is Spain's technical university with the highest number of international PhD students and...
, and operates the 94.21-teraflop MareNostrum
MareNostrum
MareNostrum is a supercomputer in the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, the second most powerful in Spain. It was presented by IBM and María Jesús San Segundo, the Spanish Minister of Education and Science...
computer. The Supercomputing and Visualization Center of Madrid
Supercomputing and Visualization Center of Madrid
The Supercomputing and Visualization Center of Madrid also called Madrid Supercomputing and Visualization Center depends on the Computer Science Faculty of the Technical University of Madrid. This center houses Magerit, one of the most powerful supercomputers in Spain...
(CeSViMa) research center at the Technical University of Madrid
Technical University of Madrid
The Technical University of Madrid or sometimes called Polytechnic University of Madrid is a Spanish University, located in Madrid. It was founded in 1971 as the result of merging different Technical Schools of Engineering and Architecture, originated mainly in the 18th century...
operates the 72-teraflop Magerit
Magerit
Magerit is the name of the one of the most powerful supercomputers of Spain. It also reached the second best Spanish position in the TOP500 list of supercomputers.This computer is installed in CeSViMa, a research center of the Technical University of Madrid....
supercomputer, which uses 86 IBM BladeCenter
IBM BladeCenter
The IBM BladeCenter is IBM's blade server architecture.-History:Originally introduced in 2002, based on engineering work started in 1999, the IBM BladeCenter was a relative late comer to the blade market. But, it differed from prior offerings in that it supported the full range of high powered x86...
s. The Spanish Supercomputing Network
Spanish Supercomputing Network
The Spanish Supercomputing Network is a scientific network created by the Spanish Education Ministry. The network is composed by several supercomputers distributed over Spain...
furthermore provides access to several supercomputers distributed across Spain.
Sweden
SwedenSweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
's Royal Institute of Technology
Royal Institute of Technology
The Royal Institute of Technology is a university in Stockholm, Sweden. KTH was founded in 1827 as Sweden's first polytechnic and is one of Scandinavia's largest institutions of higher education in technology. KTH accounts for one-third of Sweden’s technical research and engineering education...
operates the Lindgren supercomputer, which consists of 36,000 processors and operates at 305 teraflops.
Switzerland
The Swiss National Supercomputing CentreSwiss National Supercomputing Centre
The Swiss National Supercomputing Centre develops and supports technical computing for the Swiss scientific research community. It provides high-performance computing infrastructure that enables world-class simulation-based science....
was founded in 1991 and is operated by ETH Zurich
ETH Zurich
The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich or ETH Zürich is an engineering, science, technology, mathematics and management university in the City of Zurich, Switzerland....
. It is based in Manno
Manno
Manno is a municipality in the district of Lugano in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.-History:Manno is first mentioned in 1184.In 1298, the Bishop of Como owned estates in the village. In 1335, the village divided into two sections, Manno superiore and Manno inferiore, both of which belonged...
, Ticino
Ticino
Canton Ticino or Ticino is the southernmost canton of Switzerland. Named after the Ticino river, it is the only canton in which Italian is the sole official language...
, and provides supercomputing services to national research institutions and Swiss universities, as well as the international CERN
CERN
The European Organization for Nuclear Research , known as CERN , is an international organization whose purpose is to operate the world's largest particle physics laboratory, which is situated in the northwest suburbs of Geneva on the Franco–Swiss border...
organisation and MeteoSchweiz, the Swiss weather service. In February 2011, the center placed an order for a Cray XMT
Cray XMT
The Cray XMT is the third generation of the Cray MTA supercomputer architecture originally developed by Tera. The earlier generations were called the Cray MTA and the Cray MTA-2. The XMT makes the MTA's multithreaded processors, now dubbed Threadstorm, compatible with the 1207-pin Socket F used...
massively parallel
Massively parallel
Massively parallel is a description which appears in computer science, life sciences, medical diagnostics, and other fields.A massively parallel computer is a distributed memory computer system which consists of many individual nodes, each of which is essentially an independent computer in itself,...
supercomputer.
The IBM Aquasar supercomputer became operational at ETH Zurich
ETH Zurich
The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich or ETH Zürich is an engineering, science, technology, mathematics and management university in the City of Zurich, Switzerland....
in 2010. It uses hot water cooling
Computer cooling
Computer cooling is required to remove the waste heat produced by computer components, to keep components within their safe operating temperature limits.Various cooling methods help to improve processor performance or reduce the noise of cooling fans....
to achieve heat efficiency, with the computation-heated water used to heat the buildings of the university campus.
UK
The EPCCEPCC
EPCC is a supercomputing centre based at the University of Edinburgh. Since its foundation, its stated mission has been to accelerate the effective exploitation of novel computing throughout industry, academia and commerce.The University has supported high-performance computing services since 1982...
supercomputer center at the University of Edinburgh
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
was established in 1990. The HECToR
HECToR
HECToR is a British academic national supercomputer service funded by EPSRC, NERC and BBSRC for the UK academic community. The HECToR service is run by partners including EPCC, STFC and Numerical Algorithms Group ....
project at the University of Edinburgh provides supercomputing services using a 360-teraflop Cray XE6
Cray XE6
The Cray XE6 is an enhanced version of the Cray XT6 supercomputer, officially announced on 25 May 2010. The XE6 uses the same compute blade found in the XT6, with eight- or 12-core Opteron 6100 processors giving up to 2,304 cores per cabinet, but replaces the SeaStar2+ interconnect router used in...
system, the fastest supercomputer in the UK. The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts
European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts
The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts is an independent intergovernmental organisation supported by 19 European Member States and 15 Co-operating States...
(ECMWF) in Reading, Berkshire
Reading, Berkshire
Reading is a large town and unitary authority area in England. It is located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London....
, operates a 100-teraflop IBM pSeries-based system.
See also
- Distributed computingDistributed computingDistributed computing is a field of computer science that studies distributed systems. A distributed system consists of multiple autonomous computers that communicate through a computer network. The computers interact with each other in order to achieve a common goal...
- History of supercomputingHistory of supercomputingThe history of supercomputing goes back to the 1960s when a series of computers at Control Data Corporation were designed by Seymour Cray to use innovative designs and parallelism to achieve superior computational peak performance...
- Quasi-opportunistic supercomputingQuasi-opportunistic supercomputingQuasi-opportunistic supercomputing is a computational paradigm for supercomputing on a large number of geographically disperse computers. Quasi-opportunistic supercomputing aims to provide a higher quality of service than opportunistic resource sharing....
- Science and technology in EuropeScience and technology in EuropeEurope's achievements in science and technology have been significant and research and development efforts form an integral part of the European economy. Europe has been the home of some of the most prominent researchers in various scientific disciplines, notably physics, mathematics, chemistry and...
- Supercomputing in ChinaSupercomputing in ChinaThe People's Republic of China operates a number of supercomputer centers which hold world records in speed.The origins of these centers go back to 1989, when the State Planning Commission, the State Science and Technology Commission and the World Bank jointly launched a project to develop...
- Supercomputing in IndiaSupercomputing in IndiaIndia's supercomputer program was started in late 1980s because Cray supercomputers were denied for import due to an arms embargo imposed on India, as it was a dual use technology and could be used for developing nuclear weapons....
- Supercomputing in JapanSupercomputing in JapanJapan operates a number of centers for supercomputing which hold world records in speed, with the K computer becoming the world's fastest in June 2011....
- TOP500TOP500The TOP500 project ranks and details the 500 most powerful known computer systems in the world. The project was started in 1993 and publishes an updated list of the supercomputers twice a year...