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The HPC Technology Roadmap: Status Report 1 (March 20, 2001)
Background
As a part of the ENACTS program, NSC (National Supercomputer Centre) in
Sweden is performing a study of future HPC technologies. The objective
of the study is to determine the technological and economical trends which
will prescribe the hardware architectures of HPC systems 2006-2011 and
to evaluate the effects this will have on applications software.
Strategy
Instead of performing a traditional survey and evaluation of the development
of various components that comprises an HPC system we are planning to look
at the projected user demands that European HPC centers will have to meet
in the future. To do this we will conduct interviews and discussions with
key HPC technology providers focused around an investment in a large HPC
system at a fictive HPC center aiming at providing resources satisfying
the user demands 2006-2011. To provide a platform and starting point for
the discussions we will specify user demand scenarios in the context of
this fictive procurement. The discussions with vendors will thus be based
on how participating companies sees the future development of HPC technology
(components and systems) in view of these demands. The discussions will
not deal with specific details of systems currently being planned but instead
target the long term general development of HPC, thus avoiding any potential
conflict with proprietary non-disclosure information. We believe that this
approach will make the task interesting and concrete, and also facilitate
a beneficial exchange of information between vendors, our user base and
ourselves. We also believe that the results will be directly applicable
to European and other HPC centers.
Status
Since the kick off meeting in Bologna we have made a test of our proposed
method on a few key persons at HPC vendors. At this stage we have identified
and contacted the key people at all vendors to use as first contacts. Furthermore
we have developed a detailed plan for how the vendors should be approached
in order to make it as likely as possibly that our request should receive
the proper attention and provide us with information we need. Our approach
relies on a comprehensive response from a number of vendors and it is of
crucial importance that most larger vendors of HPC systems participate in
the survey. At the same time NSC has devised HPC technology roadmap relevant
questions to be included in the ENACTS questionaire to user groups. The
response from the user community will be used in our contacts with participating
vendors.
Page last modified: 2002-12-11 13:56
For more information contact us at
info@nsc.liu.se.
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