Academic Supercomputing in Europe

Czech Republic

Statistics

Population: 10.2 million
GDP/capita: € 13,700

Policy

In 1992 the Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Ministry of Education (MoE) defined a national policy for supercomputing. In 1994 5 systems were installed at university sites. These systems have since then been gradually replaced with funding from the MoE.

In 1992 MoE provided funds to create the national academic network that became operational in 1993. In 1996 all Czech universities and the Czech Academy of Sciences established the CESNET association which is responsible for the operation of the network and its development. The development of the network is covered by the budgets of the MoE and the Academy of Sciences and by grants from the Czech Grant Agency. CESNET's budget for 2004 is € 7.1 million.

Supercomputing facilities for the academia

Charles University, Prague: Beowulf cluster (16 Itanium2/1500), SGI Origin 3200/16
CESNET: Beowulf cluster (70 Xeon/3060 + 64 PIII/700)
Czech Hydrometeorological Institute, Prague: NEC SX-6/4A
Czech Technical University, Prague: SGI Altix 3700/16, IBM SP Power3/24
Masaryk University, Brno: Beowulf cluster (32 PIII/1000 + 64 Xeon/2400), SGI Origin 2000/40, Beowulf cluster (32 PIII/700 + 64 Xeon/2400)
Technical University Ostrava: IBM SP Power3/4
University of Pilsen: 2´Compaq AlphaServer/8, Beowulf cluster (32 PIII/1000), Beowulf cluster (32 Athlon/1600)

National academic network

CESNET - the Czech academic network - links the networks of all public universities and the academic institutes with a backbone operating at 2.5 Gbps (between Prague and Brno multi-10 Gbps over DWDM). The connection to GÉANT is 2.5 Gbps. An optical exchange called CzechLight, operational since January 2003, provides a 2.5 Gbps lambda to Amsterdam (NetherLight).

http://www.cesnet.cz/english

National GRIDS

The national grid initiative is centered around the MetaCenter in which CESNET and the universities in Brno, Pilsen and Prague participate.

http://meta.cesnet.cz/cms/opencms/en

Contacts and Addresses

Dr. Jaroslav Nadrchal
Centre of Automation and Computers
Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences
Cukrovarnická 10
CZ-162 53 Praha 6
email: nadrchal@fzu.cz

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