Europe major initiatives
Daniel Verwaerde then took the floor to present the Association's activity report. “With regard to major European initiatives and following European elections of recent weeks, the highlight has been the change of the Commission moving from the Junker Commission (2014-2019) to the Van Der Leyen Commission (2019-2024). This is now reflected in fairly significant changes in activities of our association's members and how they are linked both in terms of HPC and more generally in terms of information technology. In the previous Commission, HPC and DG Connect being responsible for it were linked to the Commissioner for Digital Society and Economy, Mariya Gabriel, who reported to the Vice-President for the Digital Single Market. This paved the way to the creation of the Joint Undertaking EuroHPC, independent of the Commission and led by DG Connect. The current change for this activity in HPC and more generally for the digitization of the economy and society is considered even more important by the new Commission. Among its two Vice-Presidents, the quasi-operational management will be carried out by Margrethe Vestager in charge of preparing Europe for the Digital Age, and no longer by a simple Commissioner. Executing this role under her responsibility, HPC and DG Connect will be attached to the Commissioner for the Internal Market, Industry, Defence and Space”.
It should be recalled that EuroHPC brings together the Commission and 29 Member States with a budget of around €1 billion over the period 2019/2020 half of which is financed by the Commission and by €7 billion for the period 2021/2027. The mission is twofold: to acquire very large computers in Europe and be in the Top 5 worldwide, making them available to researchers and industry; and to develop in Europe a complete industrial capacity to produce, sell, install and maintain these supercomputers. “Mariya Gabriel used to say that 30% of the world's supercomputers were used in Europe and that her ambition was for 30% to be produced in Europe”.
The EuroHPC programme is progressing rapidly. For machines with 150 to 200 PFlops capacity, 3 sites have been selected (Kajaani in Finland, Barcelona in Spain, Bologna in Italy) with tenders being launched, and installations should take place by the end of 2020. The total budget over 5 years is around €650 million. “France and Germany are not part of these three consortia, preferring to devote for the next phase which will involve exaflops machines 5 to 10 times more efficient”. 5 other machines from 5 to 30 PFlops will also be acquired for a total budget of 180 M€ over 5 years. They will be installed in Luxembourg, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Bulgaria from mid-2020. “As these sites do not necessarily have a strong track record in operating this type of machine, Teratec members could there find new opportunities with this expertise”.
“We are currently preparing the evolution of EuroHPC for the coming decade in Brussels. It is planned to continue to purchase machines so that there will always be one of the 5 most efficient machines in Europe. We also want to have a technological chain at the required level to achieve this with one adapted application development ecosystem. Finally, the Commission wants all these machines to rely on extremely fast interconnection mode to facilitate access and use”.
Teratec's role in EuroHPC is threefold. “First of all as I have just mentioned this, we actively participate in 2 Advisory Groups (Infrastructure Advisory Group, INFRAG; Research and Innovation Advisory Group, RIAG), whose mission is to draft strategic documents for the selection of platforms and the definition of the technology roadmap, in order to continue to compete on equal footing with the other world leaders in the field. We are also working on drafting the''Vision Paper 2021/2030'' devoted to the EuroHPC roadmap”.
In parallel, on request from the Commission and DG Connect, Teratec was asked to produce a document expressing the industrial need for the use of EuroHPC supercomputers. By so doing, the Commission objective is to define its policy of opening up these supercomputers to industry, from SMEs to large groups.
Thirdly, “We are also participating in 3 major Calls for Proposals launched last July: EuroHPC 03 ''Industrial software codes for extreme scale computing environments and application''; EuroHPC 04 ''Competence centres''; EuroHPC 05 ''Stimulating the innovation potential of SME's'' as a continuation of the FORTISSMO European project, cousin of the French SiMSEO)”.
"In this context, Teratec is obviously ready to act as facilitator of project development by its members within the framework of various EuroHPC actions”.
The EuroHPC 04 action aims to create a single HPC Competence Centre in each European country. It will act as an interface with the Commission and the other Member States to implement European policy in this area, providing the following services to all countries’ economic actors:
- Disseminate the uses of HPC/HPDA technologies;
- Offer a complete package of services (consulting, specific studies);
- Facilitate manufacturers' access to HPC/HPDA hardware and software capabilities;
- Provide support for the deployment of tools;
- Provide training and information;
- Collect information to measure the contribution of the Competence Centre.
“The French Government has appointed Teratec towards Brussels authorities as its banner for French Competence Centre. We have therefore made a proposal to the French public authorities to organize it with CERFACS, whose work with industrialists over the years makes it more than legitimate within such structure. The organizing committee will have 5 members: Teratec (Presidency); CERFACS (Vice-Presidency); France Industries, governing the 17 French industrial branches; GENCI, as contracting authority for large computing equipment for research; Maison de la Simulation, an organization that includes the CNRS, the CEA and the Universities of Paris-Saclay, Paris-Sud (UPS) and Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)”.
The Competence Centre's objective is to have a permanent link with the EuroHPC "Mirror Group", as well as with major research organizations able to provide technologies and knowledge (CEA, CNRS, INRIA, AFneT, AMIES, technical centers, competitiveness clusters, IRT...). Similarly, the Competence Centre will bring together the industrial world and those of education and research through regular meetings. The budget (EuroHPC and State) will be €1 million per year, which will make it possible to finance 8 people with 200,000€ investment.
“The European Union and EuroHPC are important for us because we feel that the French-French channels will become European, and if we want our action to continue and benefit the French economic frameworks it is extremely important to play the EuroHPC game completely”, concluded Daniel Verwaerde on this chapter. |
