Q and A on the HPC Wales project
Here are some Q&As on the HPC Wales high performance computer project (see earlier posts on this blog for more information) -
What are the main objectives of HPC Wales?
HPC Wales principle objective is to accelerate academic research and speed up innovation into markets. It will boost and support innovation and enterprise and provide the essential infrastructure, services and develop the high level skills to meet the needs of research and innovation in businesses.
What sectors will it support?
HPC Wales will help to meet the high performance computing capacity and skills needs of those priority research sectors identified by the Welsh Assembly Government (Digital and Creative industries, ICT, Environment and Energy, Bio and Life sciences, Advanced material and manufacturing, Financial and Professional Services), acting as a catalyst to bring technology to market quicker and to speed up economic development.
It will also provide a cross cutting technology and research platform supporting the growth of leading edge Digital and ICT industry developments
What is meant by High Performance Computing?
HPC is not just a big black box. The term refers to any computational activity requiring more that a single computer to execute a task. Supercomputers and computer clusters are used to solve advanced computation problems and are employed for specialized applications.
Major applications include -
> Data storage and analysis
> Data mining
> Simulations
> Modelling
> Software development
> Visualisation of complex data
> Rapid mathematical calculations
For example, weather forecasting requires a supercomputer. Other uses of supercomputers include animated graphics, fluid dynamic calculations, nuclear energy research, petroleum exploration, wheel chair crash simulations, modelling silt build up in estuaries or airflows over aircraft wings.
Can you give an example of how much faster it will be than a normal computer?
It will have the capability of handling huge amount of data and enable operations to undertake millions of calculations per second.
Is the funding going to be used to buy a new super computer?
The funding will be required to enhance the broadband networks, buy equipment to build on and enhance the facilities already available in Swansea and Cardiff Universities and to invest in additional equipment and capacity across Wales, so HPC Wales can be accessed at key points in all the Higher Education Institutions and some business centres.
As important will be the investment in developing the skills, training and out reach to all sectors of academia and industry building the capacity to use high performance computing infrastructure and to enable Wales to be at the forefront of exploring and developing computational skills high performance computing and software. This level of investment in the skills and outreach is part of the unique nature of HPC Wales
The research networks and commercialisation of projects using HPC Wales is the third strand of investment.
What industries will use it?
The simple answer is there are HPC applications for every industrial and commercial sector
Why is it needed?
It is vital for future competitiveness of the economy, business, industry and academia. High performance computing applications and the need for such applications are growing both in industry and academia. The increasing demand and to date the complexity of accessing and using such applications is one of the drivers fuelling cloud computing developments or outsourcing.
It will enable both researchers and business to handle and make sense of increasing data sets to model more complex problems in greater detail faster and to provide simulations, and store data for future mining and analysis.
It will be able to tackle increasingly complex simulations in environments where experimentation is not feasible for example climate change or the formulation of energy saving or low carbon solutions in practical hostile settings such as industrial furnaces and boilers.
What demand is there for HPC in Wales?
HPC Wales will fill an identified demand now and provide the understanding and skills base for Wales to actively participate in future emerging ITC markets.
The demand was initially established following a comprehensive survey of researchers in the St David’s Group and the innovative projects they are working on with business.
More than 100 projects were identified which were using or needing high performance computing - and 540 researchers identified.
Of these projects identified over 80% had business partners or potential commercial applications. This portfolio of identified projects continues to grow with some very interesting and promising projects coming from the Alliance Group of Universities
What are the main objectives of HPC Wales?
HPC Wales principle objective is to accelerate academic research and speed up innovation into markets. It will boost and support innovation and enterprise and provide the essential infrastructure, services and develop the high level skills to meet the needs of research and innovation in businesses.
What sectors will it support?
HPC Wales will help to meet the high performance computing capacity and skills needs of those priority research sectors identified by the Welsh Assembly Government (Digital and Creative industries, ICT, Environment and Energy, Bio and Life sciences, Advanced material and manufacturing, Financial and Professional Services), acting as a catalyst to bring technology to market quicker and to speed up economic development.
It will also provide a cross cutting technology and research platform supporting the growth of leading edge Digital and ICT industry developments
What is meant by High Performance Computing?
HPC is not just a big black box. The term refers to any computational activity requiring more that a single computer to execute a task. Supercomputers and computer clusters are used to solve advanced computation problems and are employed for specialized applications.
Major applications include -
> Data storage and analysis
> Data mining
> Simulations
> Modelling
> Software development
> Visualisation of complex data
> Rapid mathematical calculations
For example, weather forecasting requires a supercomputer. Other uses of supercomputers include animated graphics, fluid dynamic calculations, nuclear energy research, petroleum exploration, wheel chair crash simulations, modelling silt build up in estuaries or airflows over aircraft wings.
Can you give an example of how much faster it will be than a normal computer?
It will have the capability of handling huge amount of data and enable operations to undertake millions of calculations per second.
Is the funding going to be used to buy a new super computer?
The funding will be required to enhance the broadband networks, buy equipment to build on and enhance the facilities already available in Swansea and Cardiff Universities and to invest in additional equipment and capacity across Wales, so HPC Wales can be accessed at key points in all the Higher Education Institutions and some business centres.
As important will be the investment in developing the skills, training and out reach to all sectors of academia and industry building the capacity to use high performance computing infrastructure and to enable Wales to be at the forefront of exploring and developing computational skills high performance computing and software. This level of investment in the skills and outreach is part of the unique nature of HPC Wales
The research networks and commercialisation of projects using HPC Wales is the third strand of investment.
What industries will use it?
The simple answer is there are HPC applications for every industrial and commercial sector
Why is it needed?
It is vital for future competitiveness of the economy, business, industry and academia. High performance computing applications and the need for such applications are growing both in industry and academia. The increasing demand and to date the complexity of accessing and using such applications is one of the drivers fuelling cloud computing developments or outsourcing.
It will enable both researchers and business to handle and make sense of increasing data sets to model more complex problems in greater detail faster and to provide simulations, and store data for future mining and analysis.
It will be able to tackle increasingly complex simulations in environments where experimentation is not feasible for example climate change or the formulation of energy saving or low carbon solutions in practical hostile settings such as industrial furnaces and boilers.
What demand is there for HPC in Wales?
HPC Wales will fill an identified demand now and provide the understanding and skills base for Wales to actively participate in future emerging ITC markets.
The demand was initially established following a comprehensive survey of researchers in the St David’s Group and the innovative projects they are working on with business.
More than 100 projects were identified which were using or needing high performance computing - and 540 researchers identified.
Of these projects identified over 80% had business partners or potential commercial applications. This portfolio of identified projects continues to grow with some very interesting and promising projects coming from the Alliance Group of Universities
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