The project EXDCI-2 builds upon the success of EXDCI and will continue the coordination of the HPC ecosystem with important enhancements to better address the convergence of big data, cloud and HPC.
30 Months from 01/03/2018 to 31/08/2020
General aims
EXDCI-2 strategic objectives are a) the Development and advocacy of a competitive European HPC Exascale Strategy and b) the Coordination of the stakeholder community for European HPC at the Exascale.
EXDCI-2 mobilizes the European HPC stakeholders through the joint action of PRACE and ETP4HPC, to promote global community structuring and synchronization in HPC, Big Data, Cloud and embedded computing, for a more competitive related value chain in Europe. The project will develop an HPC technology roadmap addressing the convergence with HPDA and the emergence of new HPC uses, and it will deliver application and applied mathematics roadmaps that will pave the road towards exascale simulation in academic and industrial domains.
The project will also deal with the development of a shared vision for the future of HPC that increases the synergies and prepares for targeted research collaborations.EXDCI-2 will work to increase the impact of the H2020 HPC research projects, by identifying synergies and supporting market acceptance of the results. At the international level, EXDCI-2 will contribute to the international visibility of Europe, develop contacts with the world leading HPC ecosystems and increase European impact on HPC standards.EXDCI-2 will improve the HPC awareness by developing international event such as the European HPC Summit and by targeting specific audience through dedicated media. Finally, it will disseminate the achievements of the European HPC ecosystem.
CMCC Role
WP3 – Task 3.2 Leader
Expected results
- Focused HPC and Big Data research programmes
- Improved consideration for research opportunities using HPC and Big Data. Basis for improved scientific and industrial offerings
- Improvement of the ability to effectively use Exascale simulation and data analysis, including the optimisation of application design and understanding of application output (validation and verification)
- Improved competitiveness of applications
- Preparation to the use of innovative architectures and technologies
- Reduction of risks for end-user organisations
- Better assessment of EC and governmental support
- Better assessment of ROI
- Improved planning and reduction of risk for industrial application
- Coordination of European HPC strategy with international developments
- Increased visibility and influence of European HPC programmes
- Fostering the uptake of project results – Engagement of new stakeholders
- Improved high-end HPC & BD project impact, reduction of project risks
- More dynamic HPC & BD research communities, better support of ambitious projects including cPPPs, ESDs.
Activity
As HPC and HPDA (including AI) are now mainstream digital technologies for the improvement of scientific excellence and competitiveness of research and industrial applications in Europe, it is mandatory to strengthen the relationship with HPC users’ communities in Europe. This task will rely on a partnership with 9 existing HPC Centres of Excellence in Europe and the newly created ones in 2018, as well as pertinent FET HPC projects. Regular yearly joint events (during the European HPC Summit Week) will be organised to (i) make emerging communities aware of exascale challenges and opportunities, (ii) disseminate knowledge about (national, EU) open calls through match-making events (like InfoDays) in order to foster synergies among research teams across Europe, and (iii) catalyse joint brainstorming sessions across user communities on HPC/HPDA. Common issues and challenges will be tackled including scalable meshing tools, couplers and solvers, disruptive numerical methods, mini apps development, smart in-situ/in-transit analysis/processing coupled with AI, fault tolerance, programming languages including DSLs, etc. Such a networking activity will feed ESDs deployment and future exascale systems. Each of these brainstorming sessions could lead to the publication of white papers widely disseminated among the project partners.