The Irish Centre for High-End Computing (ICHEC) is working with SGI to provide consultancy services for General Purpose Computing on Graphics Processing Units (GPGPU) based applications. ICHEC will work exclusively with SGI to enable institutions and businesses to accelerate the development of applications that utilise GPGPU systems.
Although traditionally associated with gaming applications, the integration of graphics processing for other applications is a rapidly emerging trend. Having largely benefited intensive scientific computing to date, more general-purpose use of GPU technology is expected to provide solutions to a much broader range of disciplines.
Founded in 2005, ICHEC was established as a national high performance computing (HPC) provider with offices in Dublin and Galway, Ireland. Its team of system administrators and computational scientists work with researchers to support the development of internationally competitive computational modelling and research across a variety of disciplines and institutions. In the past year, ICHEC has established a significant team of researchers focused primarily on porting applications on GPGPU architecture.
'Our focus has been placed firmly on developing new algorithms capable of exploiting the considerable power of GPGPUs. For example, recent results from our port of the DL_POLY MD application suggest that this technology has indeed the potential to make HPC accessible to a broader audience. We expect similar success with our ongoing port of Quantum Espresso,' said James Slevin, director of ICHEC. 'By partnering with SGI, ICHEC will provide business, scientific and academic customers with a high level of consultancy to support the development of effective computing solutions.'
