Academic Supercomputing in Europe

Germany

Statistics

Population: 82.4 million
GDP/capita: €24,000

Policy

Policy on supercomputing is made both at federal and state level and is generally based on recommendations issued by the Wissenschaftsrat (WR). Its scientific committee has 32 members 24 of which represent the German academia. They are appointed on proposal of the German Research Council (DFG). The WR established in 2001 a coordinating committee for the acquisition and the use of high-performance computers. HPC investments exceeding €15 million require the approval of the committee while plans for investments between €7.5—10 million are to be reported to the committee. A DFG committee (KfR) also addresses the provision of (super)computers to universities and prepares recommendations for the WR.

As a rule 50% of the investment in academic supercomputers is provided by the federal government and 50% by the state where the university is located.

The WR recommended in 1995 on the issue of supercomputing capacities for German science and research the gradual establishment of up to four HPC centres, each to provide facilities either nation-wide or to a number of cooperating states. There are now three supercomputer centres of this new type.

HLRN (a cooperation of RRZN and ZIB) as HPC centre for the Northern States Berlin, Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Niedersachsen and Schleswig-Holstein. HLRN's IBM pSeries 690/824 system is distributed. One half of the system is located at ZIB in Berlin, the other half at RRZN in Hannover. A 2.4 Gbps link couples both parts over a distance of 300 km. The €20 million system has been financed by the participating states (together 50%) and the federal government (50%).
HLRS that operates supercomputers owned by hww, a joint venture of the Universities of Stuttgart, Heidelberg and Karlsruhe, and the State of Baden-Württenberg (together 50% of the shares), T-systems (40%) and Porsche (10%).
LRZ in Munich. End 2004 LRZ selected a new supercomputer which will be operational at the beginning of 2006. The investment of €38 million is equally shared by the State of Bavaria and the federal government.

Most of the other supercomputing centres are regional (State based) or specialised (physics, mathematics, weather etc.). A supercomputer centre that provides nationwide services to the academic community is NIC (a cooperation of FZJ and DESY).

The WR proposed in May 2002 the renewal of the HLRS resources by a 15 Tflop/s system in 2004. The budget is €58 million. In May 2003 a 40 Tflop/s system in 2005 for LRZ was proposed by the WR with a budget of €40 million. In May 2005 WR proposed a budget of €30 million for two systems of 25 Tflop/s each at HLRN.
In November 2004 the WR issued the “Recommendation on the Installation of European Supercomputers” which proposes to install a highest performance class supercomputer to complement the European computer pyramid.

http://www.wissenschaftsrat.de

Supercomputing facilities for the academia

AWI: IBM pSeries 655+/40, Cray T3E/136, Sun Fire 6800/24, Beowulf cluster (14 Xeon/2400)
BAW: SGI Origin 3000/256
DESY (Zeuthen): 8 Quadrics APEmille/128
DKFZ: HP SuperDome/96, IBM pSeries 690/96, IBM SP3/48, Beowulf cluster (32 Xeon/2000)
DKRZ: NEC SX-6/192, NEC TX-7/48
DLR: Sun Cluster (384 Opteron/2400)
DLR (Brunswick): NEC SX-5E/16
DLR (Cologne): IBM SP2/68
DLR (Wessling): IBM SP2/68
DWD: IBM p5-595/416, IBM p5-595/416
FhG/EMI: Beowulf cluster (256 Xeon/2000)
FhG/ITWM: Beowulf cluster (128 Xeon/2400), Beowulf cluster (16 Xeon/3000), Beowulf cluster (32 Opteron/2200), Beowulf cluster (16 Xeon/2200)
FHI: HP N4000/80
FzK: Beowulf cluster (558 Xeon/3060 + 144 Xeon/2660 + 130 Xeon/2200 + 288 Opteron/2000), IBM SP Power3/64
GFZ: HP V2500/16
GWDG: IBM pSeries 690/96, IBM SP Power3/144, Dell cluster (108 P4/3060), Beowulf cluster (32 Opteron/2400 + 32 Opteron/2200)
LRZ: Hitachi SR8000-F1/168, SGI Altix 3700/128, IBM pSeries 690/8, Beowulf cluster (134 Itanium2/1600 + 68 Itanium2/1300 + 12 Xeon/(3200-3600) + 138 P4/(1500-3060) + 52 PIII(700-800))
MPG/AEI (Potsdam): Beowulf cluster (128 Xeon/3060 + 128 Xeon/2660), Beowulf cluster (292 Athlon/1800 + 64 Athlon/2200 + 4 Athlon/1300)
MPG/FKF: IBM cluster (140 PowerPC970/2200), IBM cluster (138 Xeon/2200), IBM pSeries 690/32, IBM SP3/60, Fujitsu hpcLinecluster (32 Athlon/1800), Fujitsu hpcLinecluster (32 Athlon/1300)
MPG/IPP: IBM pSeries 690/1024, IBM p5-575/720, Beowulf cluster (112 Xeon/2400), Beowulf cluster (64 Xeon/2400)
MPG/MPI (Berlin): IBM SP Power3/48, HP N4000/80
NIC/FzJ: IBM BlueGene/L (2048 IBM PC440 FP2/700), IBM pSeries 690/1312, Cray XD1/72
PIK: IBM pSeries 655/256
University of Aachen: cluster of 4 Sun Fire 25K/144 + 16 Sun Fire 6900/48 + 8 Sun Fire E2900/24, Sun Fire V40z cluster (256 Opteron/2200)
University of Bielefeld: Beowulf cluster (26 Opteron/2200)
University of Bochum: HP SuperDome/28, Fujitsu hpcline cluster (128 Athlon/1800+), Beowulf cluster (64 Opteron/2400)
University of Bonn: Dell cluster (256 P4/3200), IBM cluster (13 Xeon/2800)
University of Braunschweig: Compaq Alphaserver/40
University of Chemnitz: Beowulf cluster (528 PIII/800)
University of Cologne: Sun cluster (258 Opteron/2200), Sun Fire15K/72, Sun Fire 6800 cluster/36, SGI Altix 3700/24
University of Darmstadt: IBM p5-575/480, IBM pSeries (655+/104 + 630/8), Beowulf cluster (32 P4/2800)
University of Dresden: SGI Origin 3800/128
University of Duisburg: HP V2250/16, HP V2250/12
University of Erlangen: Beowulf cluster (164 Xeon/2660), SGI Altix 3700/28
University of Essen: IBM SP2/35
University of Halle-Wittenberg: Sun Fire 6800/24
University of Hamburg-Harburg: HP SuperDome/64
University of Hannover: IBM pSeries 690/512, Sun 10000/56, Beowulf cluster (64 Opteron/2200)
University of Heidelberg: Beowulf cluster (512 Athlon/1400), Beowulf cluster (80 P4/3400), Beowulf cluster (12 PIII/933, 52 PIII/800, 12 PIII/733), Beowulf cluster (16 Opteron/2000)
University of Jena: HP SuperDome/64
University of Karlsruhe: HP cluster (216 Itanium2/1500 + 96 Itanium2/1600), IBM SP Power3/256, Fujitsu VPP5000/8, Beowulf cluster (48 PIII/800 + 6 PIII/600 +5 PIII/550 + 60 PIII/500)
University of Kiel: NEC SX-8/40, SGI Altix 3700/128
University of Leipzig: HP V2250/32, HP cluster (8 Itanium2/1500 + 22 Itanium2/1300)
University of Lübeck: Beowulf cluster (16 Opteron/1800)
University of Magdeburg: HP SuperDome/32, Beowulf cluster (148 PIII/800 + 12 Athlon/1200)
University of Mainz: HP V2500/32
University of Münster: Beowulf cluster (94 Xeon/2400 + 4 Xeon/2800), Beowulf cluster (16 Athlon/1327+50 PIII/800)
University of Paderborn: Fujitsu hpcLinecluster (400 Xeon/3200 + 16 Opteron/2200), Beowulf cluster (64 Itanium2/1300), Fujitsu hpcline cluster (192 PIII/850), Beowulf cluster (8 Itanium2/1500)
University of Rostock: Sun Fire 6800+3800/32
University of Siegen: IBM cluster (256 Opteron/2000)
University of Stuttgart (HLRS/hww): NEC SX-8/576, NEC cluster (400 Xeon/3200), Cray cluster (256 Opteron/2000), NEC SX-6/48, Hitachi SR8000/16, NEC TX-7/16, HP cluster (16 IA-64/900), Cray SV1/20, IBM pSeries 690/16, Fujitsu hpcLine cluster (130 Xeon/2000 + 64 Xeon/2400 + 2 IA-64/800), Beowulf cluster (20 PIII/1000+48 Xeon/2400)
University of Stuttgart (ITB): Beowulf cluster (256 AMD/1533)
University of Tübingen: Beowulf cluster (32 Opteron/2000), Beowulf cluster (196 PIII/650)
University of Weimar: SGI Altix 3700/40
University of Wuppertal: Beowulf cluster (1024 Opteron/1800), Compaq AlphaCluster/128
ZIB: IBM pSeries 690/512, Cray XD1/12, Beowulf cluster (32 Xeon/2200)

The next figure shows the total performance of German HPC systems and the peak performance of the #1 German system during the last 5 years.

National academic network

Data communication in the German research sector is promoted by the DFN Association - Verein zur Förderung eines Deutschen Forschungsnetzes. The DFN Association has 392 members - academic and private research organisations and industry.

http://www.dfn.de

G-WIN (Gigabit-Wissenschaftsnetz) is the German high-speed research network. Its backbone has 27 nodes. The 55 backbone connections are 2.5 Gbps and 10 Gbps. Organisations can access G-WIN at up to 10 Gbps. 550 organisations are connected to the backbone nodes. International connectivity includes 2x622 Mbps links to the USA and 10 Gbps to GÉANT. The 2005 budget is €45 million. The running costs of the network are financed by the users. BMBF finances the further development of G-WIN with €44 million over a five-year period.

Acquisition and upgrade plans

AWI: Cray XD1 ordered.
HLRN: Installation in 2006 of 2 systems of 25 Tflop/s each in Hannover and Berlin.
HLRS: In Karlsruhe a 3 Tflop/s system should be operational in 2005.
HSU: Cray XD1 ordered.
LRZ: Installation of a 33 Tflop/s SGI system in 1Q06 and upgrade to 69 Tflop/s in 2007.
University of Braunschweig: IBM p5 system planned in 2Q05.
University of Dortmund: 1 Tflop/s cluster ordered; delivery in Nov ‘05.
University of Dresden: Ordered a SGI Altix with more than 1000 processors and an Opteron based cluster. Installation planned in summer 2006. Temporary a SGI Altix Bx2 will be delivered in the fall of 2005.
University of Karlsruhe: Addition of 218 4-way Itanium2 nodes to the HP cluster in 1Q06.
ZIB: Cray XD1 ordered.

National GRIDs

Germany was one the first European countries to engage in major national grid initiatives. In 1997 the leading German Supercomputer Centres started the UNICORE project to provide in easy-to-use secure remote access to high-end machines. The UNICORE software development was funded by BMBF. The follow-up project UNICORE plus ended in 2002. The UNICORE software is now used by the large German computer centres and in several European projects like EUROGRID.

More than 40 groups of German nuclear and particle physicists have chosen FzK as site for the regional grid computing centre GridKa. GridKa provides a powerful grid infrastructure.

BMBF announced D-grid, a German e-Science Initiative, in March 2004. D-grid started officially in September 2005. BMBF will provide €100 million for this 5-year initiative, starting with almost €20 million for the first 3-year phase. More than 100 German scientific institutions cooperate in the D-grid consortium. The goal is to design, build and operate a network of distributed, integrated and virtualized high-performance resources and related services which allow processing of large amounts of scientific data and information.

http://www.d-grid.de

List of abbreviations

AWI Alfred-Wegener Institut, Bremerhaven (Institute for Polar and Marine research)
BAW Bundesanstalt für Wasserbau, Hamburg
BMBF Federal Ministry for Education, Science, Research and Technology
DESY Deutsches Elektron-Synchrotron
DFG Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
DFN Deutsche Forschungsnetz
DKFZ Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, Heidelberg
DKRZ Deutsches Klimarechenzentrum, Hamburg
DLR Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Luft- und Raumfahrt
DWD Deutscher Wetterdienst, Offenbach
EMI Ernst-Mach-Institut (FhG), Freiburg
FhG Fraunhofer Gesselschaft
FHI Fritz Haber Institute, Berlin
FKF Max-Planck-Institut für Festkörperforschung, Stuttgart
FZJ Forschungszentrum Jülich
FzK Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe
GFZ Geophysical Forschungszentrum, Potsdam
GWDG Gessellschaft für wissenschhaftliche Datenverarbeitung, Göttingen
G-WIN Gigabit-Wissenschaftsnetz
HLRN Norddeutscher Verbund für Hoch- und Höchtsleistungsrechnen
HLRS Höchtsleistungsrechenzentrum Stuttgart
HSU Helmut Schmidt University, Hamburg
HWW Höchtsleistungsrechner für Wissenschaft und Wirtschaft, Stuttgart
IPP Institut für Plasmaphysik, Garching
ITB Institute for Technical Biochemistry
ITWM Institut für Techno- und Wirtschaftsmathematik (FhG), Kaiserslautern
KfR Kommission für Rechenanlagen
LRZ Leibniz Rechenzentrum der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Munich
MPG Max Planck Gesellschaft
NIC John von Neumann Institute for Computing, Jülich
PIK Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
RRZN Regionales Rechenzentrum für Niedersachsen, Hannover
WR Wissenschaftsrat
ZIB Konrad Zuse-Zentrum für Informationstechnik, Berlin

Contacts and Addresses

Prof. Dr. H.W. Meuer
Direktor
Rechenzentrum der Universität Mannheim
L15, 16 Postfach 103462
D- 68131 Mannheim
email: meuer@rz.uni-mannheim.de

Pick another country