Articles

Gauß Allianz: German Computing Centers unify their Power

Two years after the Gauss-Centre has been created to coordinate the European supercomputing activities, Germany took the next step to shape the future of high performance computing (HPC) on a national level. On December 3rd 2008 the nations leading supercomputing centers met in Bonn to create the Gauß-Allianz. While the Gauss-Centre was successfully addressing the needs on the top end, it was clear from the beginning that an additional layer of support was required to maintain the longevity with a network of competence centers across whole Germany. This gap is now addressed by the Gauß-Allianz, where regional and topical centers team up to create the necessary infrastructure.

With the foundation of the Gauß-Allianz, the HPC community creates the organizational framework to continue the successful collaboration of the past and implements the recommendations given in the BMBF study “HPC in Germany – Reasons for a Strategic Alliance”. On the other hand BMBF recognizes the important role of HPC in science and industry, where sufficient computing power and advanced computational methods are inevitable to drive research and development. This demand also motivates the research in HPC that is necessary to continue the exponential growth in compute power while maintaining and improving usability, productivity and efficiency.