The Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre (EPCC), the supercomputing centre at The University of Edinburgh, has been designated an Intel Parallel Computing Centre (IPCC). Through a grant from Intel, EPCC will collaborate with Intel to optimise several open source high-performance computing (HPC) applications for Intel’s latest parallel processor architectures.
EPCC’s Application Consultants, who are experts in the performance tuning of HPC modelling and simulation codes, will undertake the code porting and optimisation tasks. A further aim of the IPCC is to use the hardware available at EPCC, and its extensive training programmes, to provide training and expertise, on efficiently using Intel hardware for computational simulation, to a wider range of academic and industrial participants in the UK and Europe.
Professor Mark Parsons, EPCC’s executive director (research and commercialisation), said: ‘Designation as an IPCC gives us an incredible opportunity to work on a range of important, and widely used simulation codes to ensure that they can utilise the latest Intel hardware effectively. ARCHER, the UK’s national HPC service hosted and supported by EPCC is a Cray XC30 system with Intel Xeon Processor E5-2697 v2. It is therefore essential that mainstream simulation packages, which account for more than half the usage of ARCHER, are properly optimised to get maximum benefit from this technology.’
Adrian Jackson, Research Architect at EPCC and leader for EPCC’s involvement in the G8-funded Nu-Fuse project, said: ‘The centre will build on a range of world-class projects, collaborations, and initiatives that EPCC is currently involved with, including European HPC projects such as PRACE and CRESTA and global simulation initiatives, such as Nu-Fuse.’
Bob Burroughs, director of technical computing ecosystem enabling at Intel, said: ‘Intel is pleased to expand our Intel Parallel Computing Centre program in collaborating with EPCC. This new centre creates an opportunity for Intel and EPCC to innovate and optimise applications which benefit industry and science in Europe and globally.’
