Slovakia has joined the call of the Distributed European Computer Initiative
Slovakia has been part of the PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe) for six years, whose mission is to help European research and development to achieve excellent results through HPC (High-performance computing). The PRACE research infrastructure consists of 26 countries, mainly EU member countries, but also the associated ones (e.g. Turkey or Israel). The Slovak Republic in PRACE is represented by the Centre of Operations SAS – Computing Centre. One of the challenges of the Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe, which also includes Slovakia, is DECI-16 (Distributed European Computing Initiative), i.e. the 16th challenge of the Distributed European Computer Initiative.
DECI is the international cooperation of the operators of the so-called Tier-1 computing resources (i.e. "categories of smaller ones" than Europe's largest supercomputers, Tier-0), aimed at supporting projects requiring access to such computing resources, or architectures, not currently available in the project applicant's home country. DECI is a programme for the exchange of resources between a sub-group of PRACE members where computing performance is fairly distributed according to the participation rate of individual partners in the relevant call.
Within the DECI-16 call, three Slovak projects which gained machine time on supercomputers in Ireland, Poland and Italy have been successful:
- The Italian consortium, CINECA, has provided the Galileo supercomputer to carry out calculations of the Atomistic Modelling of the Thermodynamic Properties of Nano-Multi-Layers for Bonding and Soldering Technologies project, the main solver of which is RNDr. Andrej Antušek, PhD. of the Advanced Technologies Research Institute of the Faculty of Materials Science and Technology of the STU in Bratislava;
- The Polish supercomputer Prometheus helps to solve the project Thermal Stability and Electronic Properties of Ternary Chalcogenides and Similar Materials, the main solver of which is doc. Ing. Tomáš Bučko, PhD. of the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the Comenius University in Bratislava;
- The Irish supercomputer Kay provides computing resources for the project Automated Mapping and Calculation of Rearrangement Networks of Molecules with Variable Structure, which is carried out at the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the Comenius University under the guidance of RNDr. LukášaFelix Pašteka, PhD.
The Centre of Operations SAS – Computing Centre within the DECI-16 call will provide machine time on the supercomputer Aurel of the Istanbul Technical University, which is working on the project Application of an Efficient Edge Algorithm of Finite Volumes for Buoyancy Calculation (JAXA model), whose main solver is Dr. Mehmet Sahin.
The European partnerships create a space for international cooperation, thanks to which we can implement many projects, gain new knowledge and experience and, last but not least, increase Europe's competitiveness.
Halyna Hyryavets, The Centre of Operations SAS – Computing Centre
Photo: The Centre of Operations SAS – Computing Centre