DECI-11th PRACE Project Access (Tier-1) Call Open

PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe), the European research infrastructure for High Performance Computing (HPC), makes it possible for researchers from across Europe and the world to apply for access to Tier-1 HPC systems via a peer-review process.

The DECI-11th call is managed by the PRACE-3IP project, which receives EC funding (RI-312763) and enhances the implementation of the HPC Research Infrastructure PRACE. PRACE-3IP is responsible for the Tier-1 access through the DECI calls.

Important dates:

• Opening date: 8th May, 2013, 12:00
• Closing date: 10th June, 2013, 12:00 CEST (noon)
• Anticipated allocation decisions: Early October 2013
• Allocation start date of awarded proposals: 1st November 2013
• Allocation end date of award: 31st October 2014

Tier-1 machines available: 
IBM Blue Gene/Q, Cray XE/XC, and a range of large clusters including GPU resources made available from Cyprus, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, The Czech Republic, The Netherlands, Turkey and United Kingdom.

DECI provides single project cross-national access to European Tier-1 resources (national systems). Access will be awarded for a period of 12 months, beginning 1st Nov 2013. Resources are available on the following architectures: Cray XE, Cray XC30, IBM Blue Gene/Q, Intel and Clusters (various processor and memory configurations) and hybrid systems (clusters with GPGPU accelerators). Applicants need not specify a particular machine or architecture, but if they do, we will endeavour to take these preferences into account.

Scope of the Tier-1 call and criteria for access

DECI enables European researchers to obtain access to the most powerful national (Tier-1) computing resources in Europe regardless of their country of origin or employment and to enhance the impact of European science and technology at the highest level. Proposals must deal with complex, demanding, innovative simulations that would not be possible without Tier-1 access. Please note that, in addition to offering access to computing resources, applications-enabling and porting, assistance from experts at the leading European HPC centres is offered (on request and depending on availability) to enable projects to be run on the most appropriate Tier-1 platforms in PRACE. We anticipate accepting around 40 proposals for DECI-11.

Eligibility for Tier-1

Proposals from academia and industry are eligible, as long as the project leader is undertaking non-proprietary research in a European country (European Union, candidates, associated countries and PRACE member countries). Project leaders will typically be employed in research organisations (academic or industrial). Individual HPC centres may have further restrictions on who is eligible to use the machines, e.g. due to US export rules. Further information is available on request. 

Tier-1 Computing Resources offered in this call

• Cray Large Cray XE systems are available at SNIC-KTH (Sweden) and CSCS (Switzerland). The largest of these machines has a peak performance of 402 TeraFlops and a total of 47,872 cores. At CSC (Finland) a 11,776-core machine with XC30 architecture is available. Around 35% of the total DECI resource (equating to 49 million XE compute core hours) is available on Cray architecture. 
• IBM Blue Gene/Q – a BG/Q system is available at STFC’s Hartree Centre (UK). The Blue Gene/Q has a peak performance of 1.2 PetaFlops and a total of 98,304 cores and is particularly suited to projects focusing on the development of highly scalable codes. Around 12% of the total DECI resource (equating to 25 million BG/Q compute core hours) is available on this machine. 
• Clusters – clusters are available at BSC (Spain, Intel plus GPGPU cluster), CaSToRC (Cyprus, Westmere cluster plus GPGPU), CINECA (Italy, Westmere cluster plus GPGPU) , CYFRONET(Intel Xeon), FZJ (Germany, Bull Nehalem cluster), ICHEC (Ireland, x86 Cluster with shared memory and accelerator partitions), ICM (Poland, IBM Power 7), IPB (Serbia, Intel Sandy Bridge plus GPGPU cluster), NIIFI (Hungary, HP Magny-Cours Cluster), PSNC (Poland, SGI SMP cluster), RZG (Germany, IBM Sandy Bridge cluster), SIGMA (Norway, Megware high memory cluster, particularly suited to data intensive applications), SURFSARA(The Netherlands, Bullx Ivy Bridge Cluster), UHEM (Turkey, Nehalem cluster), VSB-TUO (Bull Intel Xeon) and WCSS (Poland, Intel Xeon). Around 53% of the total DECI resource (equating to 33 million cluster compute core hours) is available on this class of architecture. In addition to the above some systems are presently under procurement: For example, EPCC will obtain a petascale machine based on Intel, IvyBridge architecture with more that 3 times the throughput of the present machine (HECToR). More information about Tier 1 resources can be found here.

How to apply to DECI-11

Applicants should apply to DECI via our submission tool here. The DECI support team is available to answer questions by email while the call is open and applicants are encouraged to contact us if they have any questions. Late applications cannot be accepted. In the case of technical difficulties, the decision of the DECI Peer Review Team as to whether an application can be accepted is final. Applicants are advised to submit as early as possible before the deadline. The deadline for submission of proposals for Tier-1 systems is 10th June, 2013, at 12:00 CEST.

Process details and deadlines for Tier-1 DECI proposals

The call will close at 12:00 CEST on the 10th June 2013. The DECI Peer Review Team will perform an administrative validation check. In case of administrative inaccuracies the applicant will receive an email asking for administrative details. The deadline for the applicant to provide such details is 17th June 2013 at 12:00 CEST. Anything received after 17th June 2013 at 12:00 CEST will NOT be accepted nor considered in the review process. Between 10th June 2013 – 17th June 2013 the DECI Peer Review Team will accept modified proposals ONLY when these supply further details in reply to requests from PRACE. Several submissions of the same proposal before the submission deadline are permitted, but only the last one will be considered. By 12:00 CEST on 17th June 2013, all applicants will receive confirmation that their proposals have been correctly submitted and that they meet the eligibility criteria. From 17th June the projects will be technically and scientifically peer reviewed. The DECI proposals will be peer-reviewed by national peer-review panels. The applicants will be informed of the review results in early October 2013.

Terminology

Core hour: Elapsed time (wall clock time) in which a core is allocated to the user.

Contacts 

For any queries related to applications or eligibility please contact: deci-support@prace-ri.eu

About PRACE

The Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE) is an international non-profit association with its seat in Brussels. The PRACE Research Infrastructure provides a persistent world-class high performance computing service for scientists and researchers from academia and industry in Europe. The computer systems and their operations accessible through PRACE are provided by 4 PRACE members (BSC representing Spain, CINECA representing Italy, GCS representing Germany and GENCI representing France). The Implementation Phase of PRACE receives funding from the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreements RI-261557, RI-283493 and RI-312763. For more information, see www.prace-ri.eu