Harnessing the power and unlocking the potential of high performance computing
A Research Collaboratory in association with
Challenges ‘High performance computing’ (HPC) or ‘supercomputing’ is changing the face of science and engineering. And the Hartree Centre is changing the face of HPC. Using parallel processing to deliver unprecedented computing speeds, HPC unlocks new frontiers of problem solving, prediction and data analysis. A myriad of applications range from developing innovative products and services to tackling ‘grand challenges’ such as disease detection and climate change. We’ll help you to explore and exploit the possibilities and opportunities, today and tomorrow. From squeezing value out of ‘big data’ to developing software for next generation supercomputers, it’s our mission to deliver HPC and complementary expertise on a game-changing easy to access, easy to use basis. Our top quality capabilities will generate bottom line benefits for your organisation, including: • Sharper innovation and improved global competitiveness • Lower research and development costs • Lower costs for certification • Shorter time to market
Can we help you? In the field of data analytics, our data intensive computing platforms provide the tools to develop and deploy cutting-edge software, while our shared memory platform - one of the UK’s biggest - equips us to analyse huge datasets at rest or streaming in real time.
Credentials Underpinned by £37.5 million of UK Government funding, the Hartree Centre’s unique and comprehensive suite of cost-effective, business focused solutions is built on our unrivalled credentials in three essential areas: Experience
Equipment
The Hartree Centre is a venture by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and IBM, organisations with an outstanding track record of vision, innovation and achievement in state-of-the-art computing and leadingedge e-science that spans many decades.
Our benchmark array of HPC and associated facilities, based across the Sci-Tech Daresbury and Harwell Oxford national science and innovation campuses, represents an exceptionally formidable supercomputing environment and includes:
Expertise A prominent member of the UK’s e-Infrastructure Leadership Council, STFC’s skill set extends beyond its 150-strong scientific computing team to embrace world-class multi-disciplinary capabilities, reinforced by deep ties with industry and academia. IBM’s research, development and technical expertise is also globally renowned for delivering real world solutions and pioneering breakthroughs. In addition, the Hartree Centre harnesses the specialist skills of partners OCF, DDN, Intel, ScaleMP, NVIDIA and the Virtual Engineering Centre - all acknowledged leaders in their fields. Credit: CFD simulation from Engys Ltd, an enCORE user.
• Blue Joule: the UK’s number one supercomputer, the world’s largest dedicated to software development and capable of over a thousand trillion calculations per second • Blue Wonder: a world-class iDataPlex cluster comprising over 8,000 processor cores and ideal for driving optimal value from ‘big data’ • State-of-the-art interactive, 3D immersive visualisation suites, including a 150 seat lecture theatre with stereo capabilities and an eightprojector 120 degree surround visualisation system Together, our credentials combine to open up your route to insight, impact and success.
Can we help you? I n the life sciences sector, our expertise offers improved opportunities to process and analyse genomic data and other big datasets in ways that advance understanding and underpin innovation in healthcare and beyond.
Capabilities We channel our know-how into five customisable solutions - each specifically designed to maximise benefits and drive value for your organisation: Software development Unless software is available that can keep pace with hardware developments, HPC will fail to fulfil all of its promise over the next decade. At the Hartree Centre, it’s one of our core objectives to develop, demonstrate and deploy software that can scale to the largest new and next generation computing architectures. Whether writing new algorithms or optimising existing code, we open the door to the handling of ever vaster datasets and the exploitation of unprecedentedly sophisticated modelling and simulation capabilities.
Applications and optimisation The key to successful, cost-effective innovation increasingly lies not just in the traditional laboratory but in the ‘virtual’ world of cutting-edge computing technologies. The ability to turn data mountains into meaningful information, insight and understanding is no longer a luxury - it’s a competitive necessity. We’ll help you to enhance your existing software and push new products and services forward. Our HPC systems and modelling and simulation capabilities, together with our supporting expertise, will also deliver the problem-solving skills you need in order to create and innovate on a whole new level.
HPC on-demand Cost of entry is arguably the biggest barrier restricting the deployment of HPC by industry, academia, research organisations and government alike. Our HPC on-demand service, delivered by our channel partner OCF, eliminates the requirement for capital expenditure and for in-house
skills development and maintenance by giving you cloudbased access to the leading-edge supercomputing and associated facilities and skills you need, when you need them. Known as enCORE, this service is fully scalable and its fully flexible ‘pay as you go’ model provides the perfect, affordable entry point to capabilities that have the proven potential to transform your business.
Collaboration As well as working for you, we’re always looking for opportunities to work with you - to collaborate on new code, applications and other promising projects that can contribute to the ongoing development of high-tech, knowledge-led economies. Spanning the spheres of both hardware and software, we offer an ideal, skills-rich, imaginative environment where industrial, academic and other organisations can collaborate with us and each other to drive new ideas forward, test concepts and assess the market potential of innovative products and services.
Training and education We’re committed to sharing our insight and experience as widely as possible and so enabling all kinds of organisations to build up their own knowledge capital - in everything from underlying computing methodologies to the development and use of leading-edge software. Through courses, workshops and a range of formal and informal media, our aim is both to upskill and to inspire not just scientists and engineers in the world of industry and research but university students, schools and the public at large too.
Can we help you? In the environmental sector, our world-class software skills can, for example, help you to develop programs and models capable of mapping short, medium and long-term weather and climate conditions much more accurately than ever before.
It’s not about us, it’s about you Your business. Your competitive advantage. Your future. We know what HPC can do and we’re passionate about bringing its benefits to as large a number and as wide a range of organisations as possible.
Our expertise really can make a difference to organisations of just about every type and size. However big or small your requirement, the Hartree Centre is committed to dovetailing worldclass technical excellence with efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery. Because meeting your needs is our only objective.
Our primary focus is on nine sectors: • Life sciences • Engineering • Materials and chemistry • Environment • Nuclear science • Power • Data analytics • Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) • Government
Can we help you? Our expertise can help government to analyse the impacts of past policy decisions and to shape future initiatives by producing more accurate predictions of the economic, social and environmental effects of different policy options.
Make the connection Whatever your aims or aspirations, we’d be delighted to explore how high performance computing could help you to achieve them. You can contact us at: Hartree Centre STFC Daresbury Laboratory Sci-Tech Daresbury Keckwick Lane Daresbury Warrington WA4 4AD United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)1925 603 444 Email: hartree@stfc.ac.uk
www.stfc.ac.uk/hartree