In this project, a group of leading European supercomputing centres formed a buyers group to execute the first joint Public Procurement of Innovative Solutions (PPI) in the area of high-performance computing (HPC). With the additional co-funding by the EC, the total investment was about € 73 million and a significant enhancement of the HPC infrastructure could be realised. The involved HPC centres, namely BSC, CEA/GENCI, CINECA and the Jülich Supercomputing Centre (JSC), have a strong track record in providing supercomputing resources at the European level.
This joint initiative was designed to create benefits in multiple respects:
▪ More advanced supercomputing resources are now available for science and engineering applications in Europe through PRACE, the pan-European HPC infrastructure, thanks to the new supercomputers Joliot-Curie at CEA, Marconi100 at CINECA and JURECA-DC at JSC. Furthermore, a large-scale high-performance storage infrastructure has been realised at BSC.
▪ R&D on HPC architectures and technologies in Europe have been strengthened as strong preference was given to solutions that integrate innovative solutions where many have been developed in Europe. This includes, e.g. solutions for monitoring and managing power consumption to improve energy efficiency.
▪ Finally, the project was expected to generate more impact on the design of the solutions according to the needs of scientists and engineers in Europe thanks to the coordinated approach. Various success stories show that the deployed solutions are indeed suitable for enabling new research in Europe.
The participants worked together on coordinated roadmaps and based on the outcomes of a joint market consultation, common requirements and evaluation criteria were jointly formulated. These were complemented by site-specific requirements and evaluation criteria. Final procurement contracts were designed to be awarded within four different lots. By deploying a variety of innovative solutions, a broad range of capabilities is now available.