Call for Proposal 2022-1

Scientists qualified in their respective field of research can submit proposals for access to HPC resources operated by Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing (PC²). We offer multi-million core-hour projects on a recent generation of HPC systems with low-latency interconnect.

PC² is one of eight computer centers in Germany of the NHR alliance (Nationales Hochleistungsrechnen). The main focus of Paderborn is on three important application competence areas and their user communities: Atomistic Simulations, Optoelectronics and Quantum Photonics, and Machine Learning for Intelligent Systems. PC² will operate its first NHR large scale HPC system from the beginning of 2022.

PC² provides a portfolio of preinstalled applications and offers support for software installation/configuration of project-specific applications. We provide consulting services for all users and we advise them on using the resources in an efficient way.  In particular, we provide consulting services in the field of Computational Chemistry and Solid-state Physics. Furthermore, PC² encourages approximate computing and the acceleration of applications with Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA). Proposals from young scientists and instituations where equal opportunities are concerned are particularly encouraged.

Available Resources

Noctua2
(2nd installation phase of Noctua and NHR HPC system, full operation is planned to start in 1Q2022)

ca. 8 PFLOPS HPC system (CPU+GPU)
with at least 32 FPGA nodes
https://pc2.uni-paderborn.de/hpc-services/available-systems/noctua2/

Noctua1
(1st installation phase of Noctua,
in operating since 2018)

256 compute nodes, each 40 processor cores (2x Intel Xeon 6148) and 192 GiB main memory
18 FPGA nodes, same as a compute node with additional 2 x Intel Stratix 10 FPGAs (BittWare/Nallatech 520N card)
100 Gbps Omni-Path network
720 TByte parallel file system
https://pc2.uni-paderborn.de/hpc-services/available-systems/noctua1/

OCuLUS
(operation ends in 1Q2022,
OCuLUS projects will be migrated to Noctua)

 

552 compute nodes, each 16 processor cores (2x Intel Xeon E5-2670) and 64 GiB main memory
20 nodes with 256 GiB and 4 nodes with 1 TiB main memory
31 GPU nodes, same as compute node with additional Nvidia K20 GPU / GTX 1080 Ti
9 GPU nodes, same as compute node with additional two Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti / RTX 2080 Ti
40 Gbps InfiniBand network
500 TByte parallel file system
https://pc2.uni-paderborn.de/hpc-services/available-systems/oculus/

Proposals can be submitted for

  • Large (NHR) project: more than 12 million core hours
  • Normal (NHR) project: more than 4 million core hours and <= 12 million core hours, resp. more than 0.1 million GPU hours
  • Small project: 4 million or less core hours, resp. 0.1 million or less GPU hours
  • Test project: code testing and optimization (limited to a 30 day period)

Normal or large projects are evaluated on a biannual schedule. Applications for small and test projects can be submitted at any time and are continuously evaluated. 

Who can apply?

Proposals can be submitted from members of German universities or research institutions located in Germany.

Small projects can only be requested by scientists from universities or research institutes located in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). An exception is made for small proposals with a special emphasis on FPGA acceleration of HPC codes, which can be submitted from members of German universities or research institutions located in Germany. Scientists from locations with local Tier 3 coverage should only apply for normal or large projects.

All proposals should show the potential of achieving results which are intended to be published in scientific journals or presented at conferences.

How to apply?

An electronic application form must be completed (online at PC²-JARDS).

Normal and large projects have to explicitly demonstrate their degree of parallelism, efficiency and scalability on the available HPC systems or a comparable installation. We provide template and guidelines.

Proposals for test and small projects can be submitted at any time and are continuously evaluated. 

The project duration of large, normal, and small projects is 12 months.

Important Dates

Opening date

November, 12nd, 2021

Closing date

December, 3rd, 2021 (1:00pm)

Scientific reviews of proposals December
Announcement of allocation decision Early 2022
Allocation period for awarded large proposals January 2022 until December 2022

The follow-up "Call for Proposals 2022-2" will have an allocation period starting on 1st of April 2022 with a project duration of 12 months.

Formal Regulations 

The normal and large proposals will be ranked based on scientific and technical quality in a peer review process. Small projects are reviewed in a continuous internal process.
Proposals may be granted in their entirety, with a changed volume, or rejected by the Resource Allocation Board of PC².  

Contact

Paderborn University - PC²
PC² - Resource Allocation Board
Warburger Str. 100
33098 Paderborn

pc2-support(at)uni-paderborn(dot)de

Head of the Resource Allocation Board: Prof. Dr. Thomas Kühne