The new Airbus airplane cannot be developed without large supercomputers, noted Krause from the University of Aachen. To be effectively used by the aerospace industry, higher data transfer rates are needed than are available today. He also is in favour of creating competence centres, which bring together expertise in the HPCN application areas. The centres do not have to be physically located in one place. They can also be distributed with experts communicating by modern technologies.
Big centres are cheaper to operate than smaller ones.
This should be made easier. Lutherman, from the University of Hannover, mentioned an initiative to create a large supercomputer centre in the northern part of Germany. Several states and many institutions are involved. A large centre is nearly always a collaboration between many partners. Reindefeld, from the University of Paderborn, noted that in the State of Northrhine Westfalia, already several smaller HPCN centres are collaborating and trying to allow each others' users on their SP2, Convex and SGI Origin machines.