HPCN Taskforce Status and Information Peter Kunszt Swiss Grid Initiative Meeting Bern May 7, 2007

Swiss Grid Day Bern Mandate by State Secretary Charles Kleiber to the ETH Board  Investigate the role of high performance computing and networking (HPCN) in Switzerland  Assessment of the Swiss needs  Develop a HPCN Swiss National Strategic Plan for the period  Contributions of top national and international experts  Input of a large number of Swiss stakeholders from academia, industry and other institutions.

Swiss Grid Day Bern Current Status  Task force has been formed mid last year  Several meetings, collection of expert opinions were had  The ‘political’ recommendation has been given to the State Secretary last at the end of April  The ‘technical’ recommendation will be developed until September

Swiss Grid Day Bern Arguments for Petascale Computing in Switzerland  Experts from the Swiss academic community argue for a petascale system in the period  Practical applications seen in –medicine –bioinformatics –material sciences –electricity network management –financial modeling and risk management –modeling of natural disasters –etc.

Swiss Grid Day Bern Recommendation Summary  Switzerland must acquire a new top-level computing system to be located at the Swiss National Supercomputing Center (CSCS) in the canton of Ticino that will thus continue its national leading role in HPCN.  Within a strategy of national coordination, this role should be facilitated by the creation of a national network led by CSCS, with the support of SWITCH.  There must be a qualitative and quantitative increase in the HPCN- related education activities with a strong role of the network.  Overall, the strategy requires for an additional investment from the federation for hardware and buildings, software and educa- tion.  Switzerland must exploit its national strategy to play a major role in European HPCN initiatives.