Part 3
Projects & Landmarks
Data, Computing and Digital Research Infrastructures / Landmark

PRACE

Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe

The top level of the European High Performance Computing ecosystem

description

The Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE) is a pan-European supercomputing Research Infrastructure providing access to world-class computing and data resources and services through a peer-review process, for large-scale high-impact scientific and engineering applications at the highest performance level across all disciplines. PRACE also seeks to strengthen the European users of High Performance Computing (HPC) in industry through various initiatives. PRACE has a strong interest in improving energy efficiency of computing systems and reducing their environmental impact.

PRACE is established as an International not-for-profit Association under Belgian Law (AISBL) with seat in Brussels. It has 26 Member countries whose representative organisations create a pan-European supercomputing infrastructure. A total of 7 supercomputers and their operations accessible through PRACE are provided by 5 hosting members: France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland.

activity

The computer systems and their operations accessible through PRACE are provided by 5 PRACE members (BSC representing Spain, CINECA representing Italy, ETH Zurich/CSCS representing Switzerland, GCS representing Germany and GENCI representing France). Four Hosting Members (FR, DE, IT, ES) secured funding for the initial period 2010-2015. In 2016, a 5th Hosting Member – ETH Zurich/CSCS (CH) – opened its system via the PRACE Peer Review Process. In pace with the needs of the scientific communities and technical developments, systems deployed by PRACE are continuously updated and upgraded to be at the apex of HPC technology.

Currently, the fifth PRACE Implementation Phase is coordinated by Forschungzentrum Jülich (DE). The objectives of PRACE-5IP are to build on and seamlessly continue the successes of PRACE and start new innovative and collaborative activities proposed by the consortium. These include: assisting the transition to PRACE 2 including an analysis of Trans National Access; strengthening the internationally recognised PRACE brand; continuing and extend advanced training which so far provided more than 18.800 person-training days; preparing strategies and best practices towards Exascale computing; coordinating and enhancing the operation of the multi-tier HPC systems and services; and supporting users to exploit massively parallel systems and novel architectures. A high level Service Catalogue is provided. The activities are designed to increase Europe’s research and innovation potential especially through: seamless and efficient Tier-0 services and a pan-European HPC ecosystem including national capabilities; promoting take-up by industry and new communities and special offers to SMEs; implementing a new flexible business model for PRACE 2; proposing strategies for deployment of leadership systems; collaborating with the ETP4HPC, CoEs and other European and international organisations on future architectures, training, application support and policies.

impact

European scientists and engineers need to exploit more broadly high-end HPC and connection with many ESFRI RIs is to be strengthened to maximize the impact on the ERA and on broad applications in industry and services. PRACE actively interfaces with XSEDE – the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (USA), RIKEN (Japan) and Compute Canada, and also with GÉANT – the pan-European data network for the research and education community, EGI – the European Grid Infrastructure, EUDAT– the European data infrastructure and HBP – the Human Brain Project.

type
distributed
legal status
AISBL, 2010
political support
The following countries are members of PRACE
lead country
CH, DE, ES, FR, IT
members countries
AT, BE, BG, CY, CZ, DK, EL, FI, HU, IE, IL, LU, NL, NO, PL, PT, SE, SI, SK, TR, UK
The full list of research institutions involved must be found in the website of the RI
timeline
Roadmap Entry
2006
Preparation Phase
2008-2010
Implementation/Construction Phase
2011-2020
Operation Start
2010
estimated costs
capital value
500 M€
design
Not Available
preparation
20 M€
construction
Not Available
operation
60 M€/year
headquarters

PRACE AISBL
Brussels, Belgium