Intel Expands European High Performance Computing Research

·   Forschungszentrum Jülich, ParTec and Intel have signed a multi-year agreement to form the ExaCluster Laboratory at Jülich

·   The ExaCluster Laboratory  is the latest member of Intel Labs Europe

·   The ExaCluster Laboratory is closely aligned with Intel’s European high-performance computing research to reach exaFLOPS

HAMBURG, May 31, 2010 – Forschungszentrum Jülich, ParTec and Intel have signed a multi-year agreement to create the ExaCluster Laboratory at Jülich. The new lab will be a private/public collaboration and explore the key challenges of building computing systems with a thousand times the performance of today’s fastest supercomputers. Closely aligned with Intel’s high-performance computing research it will be the latest member of Intel’s European research network - Intel Labs Europe.

The ExaCluster Laboratory is Intel Labs Europe’s 20th research lab. It will initially employ about a dozen researchers and is expected to approximately triple its employment over time. Following the creation of the Exascale Computing Research Center in Paris last fall, the ExaCluster Laboratory is Intel’s second joint lab in Europe focused exclusively on high-performance computing research. It complements and extends Intel’s existing high-performance computing research programs, investments and initiatives, including the Intel Academic Community Program and c.a.r.u.s. IT AG’s “Drug Discovery Transformed” project.

“The Forschungszentrum Jülich has taken a leading role in driving high-performance computing research in Europe,” said Kirk Skaugen, Vice President and General Manager of Intel’s Data Center Group. “We have chosen to work with Forschungszentrum Jülich because of their strong history of innovations in the area of high- performance computing.”

The ExaCluster Laboratory will conduct research to address key problems of systems management software for large heterogeneous super computer systems to reach exaFLOPS performance. This includes research on open exascale runtime system software, software tools and simulation software. The term exaFLOPS describes the processing of one trillion – or 1 million million million – instructions per second. Supercomputers working at that speed are referred to as “exascale” systems.

Examples of “grand challenge” problems that could be aided by the use of exascale systems are understanding extremely complex health care and biochemical phenomena like detailed whole organ modeling or more precisely predicting tumor behavior. The more interdependencies a supercomputer can comprehend the more meaningful the simulation results will be to doctors and scientists. Performing such complex simulations require fast, repeated computation of complex formulas. For a timely analysis required calculations demand multi-petaFLOPS and exaFLOPS compute performance which is unavailable today. The value of solving such grand challenge problems and the need for exascale computing power to enable it is widely recognized by the IT industry. The ExaCluster Laboratory’s and Intel’s work with the European high performance computing community are expected to push the boundaries of computing to deliver exaFLOPS capable supercomputers.

”We look forward to collaborating with Intel on the race to exaFLOPS performance ,” said Prof. Dr. Achim Bachem, Chairman of the Forschungszentrum Jülich.

Intel has a rich history of innovation and creativity in Europe with research and development programs encompassing areas such as atomic-level chip design and research, software development, mobile communications and services,  and research on technologies that could help the aging population to lead healthier, better lives.

Intel’s research and development efforts include Intel-owned labs focused on development of Intel products, joint research with European universities, open innovation and collaboration with industry and academia, participation in EU framework programs and cooperative standards development work with industry partners that deliver increased value and productivity to consumers.

            Intel R&D/Innovation in Europe is driven by a network of research labs, product labs and innovation labs spanning the region as well as a variety of Intel business units. Intel Labs Europe was formally established in early 2009 as the central means of coordinating activities across this diverse and extensive network, and to strengthen and improve Intel’s alignment with European R&D. Today, Intel Labs Europe consists of 20 labs employing more than 900 research professionals.

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