IBM and SARA have signed a joint research collaboration agreement focused on petascale computing. The agreement allows for joint research in a number of areas to enable applications to run on next generation petaflop supercomputers. The collaboration builds upon a long-standing relationship between SARA and IBM in the field of high-performance computing.

The currently deployed SARA Huygens cluster with IBM POWER 575 technology and an IBM POWER 755 test system will be used as major platforms to support the research. Areas of research include scaling key applications in the Dutch research community to support a large number of cores, new programming tools, Linux system performance and tuning and energy efficient technologies – all essential for petaflop systems.

Hundreds of scientists in the Netherlands make use of the national supercomputing facility Huygens at SARA to tackle important scientific and societal challenges like climate change, water management, improvement of medical care, nanotechnology and green energy.

"Next generation petascale supercomputers and applications are required to enable top level competitive research in the Netherlands and to stimulate the knowledge economy," said Anwar Osseyran, director of SARA. "Petaflop supercomputers have tens to hundreds of thousands of processor cores. Significant research and development and a strong collaborative effort between HPC centers, vendors and users are required to manage and use such systems efficiently. Our continuous collaboration with IBM as one of the leading HPC vendors is therefore very important for SARA."

"Supercomputers are crucial for pioneering research that helps to find answers to major social issues. Cooperating with SARA will not only boost the endeavors of the research community in the Netherlands and beyond, but also help IBM continue its efforts to develop supercomputers capable of multiple petaflops and more," said Harry van Dorenmalen, Country General Manager IBM Netherlands.