Simulation Laboratories

For some years now there has been a growing realisation that application software is lagging behind HPC hardware developments. While several Petaflop-scale supercomputers are now available worldwide, it is becoming increasingly difficult to exploit these machines with single applications. Substantial efforts are needed in order to enable computational science communities to solve problems with high scientific impact through efficient use of high-end supercomputing resources.

To help meet this challenge the Jülich Supercomputing Centre (JSC) has proposed a new type of domain-specific research and support structure: the Simulation Laboratory. Three such units have now been established at JSC in the fields of Computational Biology, Molecular Systems and Plasma Physics, which have already been actively engaged with user groups from their respective communities over the past year. A fourth SimLab in Climate Modelling will come on stream early 2011.