Distributed Computing Support Programme/High End Computing Support Programme (DisCo/HPC)
Project Overview
Specialist support for EPSRC's grant activity is provided at Daresbury through the Distributed Computing Programme (DisCo). In the rapidly changing landscape of computational infrastructure it is vital to be able to provide the latest quantitative and impartial information to the scientific community. The HPC Development (high-end) support programme is aimed at keeping major EPSRC-funded computational groups at the forefront of world research. Much of the work is focused around developing scaleable parallel algorithms, new scientific functionality and more effective computational methodologies.
Web Sites
For more information see the following Web sites:
Objectives
Through comprehensive benchmarking of machines with real parallel applications, workshops and one-to-one enquiries the DisCo programme:
- Provides data and advice to current and aspiring grant holders on distributed matters and, equally, on all aspects of operating systems, tools and machine performance
- Supplies this expertise to EPSRC enabling quantitative judgements to be made on the computational aspects found in proposals submitted through its various research programmes
The objectives of the HPC programme are aimed particularly at enabling efficient exploitation of national facilities, but also to enhance the cost-effective exploitation of departmental systems funded e.g. via the JREI and JIF initiatives. Developments are implemented in core computational science and engineering applications packages that are subsequently exploited by the HPC communities on a wide range of modestly and massively parallel platforms. The code development activities are complemented by technical reports with coding examples, technical workshops, demonstration codes incorporating new programming paradigms, and numerical algorithm libraries (e.g. HSL and CLIPS).