High performance computing in the EU : progress on the implementation of the European HPC strategy : executive summary.
Date: 2015-09-18
Institutions: Directorate-General for the Information Society and Media
Subjects: common strategy, computer, computer centre, computer system, information technology, information technology industry, new technology

(Executive Summary)  

High Performance Computing in the EU: 
Progress on the Implementation of the 
European HPC Strategy 

Executive Summary 

A study prepared for the European Commission 

DG Communications Networks, Content & Technology by: 

Digital 
1 
Agenda for 
Europe 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
This study was carried out for the European Commission by 

Contract number:     30-CE-0663100/00-22 

SMART number: 

    2014/0021 

DISCLAIMER 

By  the  European  Commission,  Directorate-General  of  Communications  Networks, 
Content & Technology.  

The  information  and  views  set  out  in  this  publication  are  those  of  the  author(s)  and 
do  not  necessarily  reflect  the  official  opinion  of  the  Commission.  The  Commission 
does  not  guarantee  the  accuracy  of  the  data  included  in  this  study.  Neither  the 
Commission  nor  any  person  acting  on  the  Commission’s  behalf  may  be  held 
responsible for the use which may be made of the information contained therein. 

ISBN 978-92-79-50341-2 

doi:10.2759/351785 

KK-02-15-576-EN-N 

©  European  Union,  2015.  All  rights  reserved.  Certain  parts  are  licensed  under 
conditions to the EU.  

Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged.  

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A B S T R A C T  

for 

IDC  conducted 

the  European  Commission  Directorate-General 

This  is  the  Final  Report  D3  of  the  study  SMART  2014/0021  High  Performance 
Computing in the EU: Progress on the Implementation of the European HPC Strategy 
for 
that 
Communications  Networks,  Content  &  Technology,  Unit  C1  eInfrastructure.  The  main 
goal  was  to  assess  progress  against  the  Action  Plan  in  the  EC  Communication,  High 
Performance  Computing (HPC): Europe’s Place  in a Global Race (February 2012) and 
provide recommendations regarding the strategy and its implementation. The findings 
will  support  the  EC  report  to  the  European  Parliament  and  Council  on  the 
implementation of the Communication, planned for 2015. The European HPC strategy 
has  made  impressive  overall  progress,  especially  in  organizing  Europe's  HPC 
community to pursue the strategy's leadership goals, narrowing the gap between the 
largest European supercomputers and their counterparts elsewhere, and providing fair 
access to leading supercomputers for scientists and engineers throughout Europe. To 
achieve  the  goal  of  HPC  leadership—meaning  at  minimum  parity  in  HPC  capabilities 
with  the  best  in  the  world—Europe  needs  to  acquire  at  least  one  exascale 
supercomputer  in  the  same  timeframe  as  the  U.S.,  Japan  and  China.  The  current 
European  HPC  strategy  provides  no  clear  path  for  doing  this.  IDC  recommends  that 
Europe  extends  the  end  date  for  its  HPC  strategy  from  2020  to  2022,  to  match  the 
exascale time frames of the U.S., Japan and China, and that Europe plans to acquire 
two  exascale  systems,  one  of  which  stresses  innovative  European  technologies  (such 
as  those  being  advanced  within  ETP4HPC).  To  amass  the  €1  billion-plus  funding 
needed for the exascale supercomputers, the Member States must find a way to pool 
funding,  and  the  European  Commission  must  find  a  way  to  boost  its  contribution  to 
the needed funding amount. Rules for collaboration will likely need to change, in order 
to allow the Commission and Member States to work more closely together. European 
HPC suppliers face protective barriers in the U.S., Japanese and Chinese HPC markets. 
These  market  asymmetries  should  be  addressed  at  a  government-to-government 
level,  preferably  by  the  European  Commission.  The  European  Commission  and 
Member  States  should  also  collaborate  to  address  the  shortage  of  qualified  HPC  job 
applicants,  especially  by  ensuring  that  HPC  competency  is  required  in  university 
scientific and engineering curricula, and that students are aware from an early age of 
attractive, rewarding HPC careers.   

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E X E C U T I V E   S U M M A R Y  

Europe has made impressive progress in areas that are crucial for the goals of the Action 
Plan, especially organizing the European HPC community to pursue HPC leadership on a 
unified basis, expanding the scientific and industrial access to and use of supercomputers, 
and launching initiatives to strengthen the European HPC supply chain.  

The  IDC  assessment  of  progress  in  implementing  the  European  HPC  strategy,  and  our 
related  recommendations,  are  based  on  the  four  Action  Plan  Objectives  and  the  six 
related  Strategic  Actions.  This  ultimate  aim is to  make  Europe  stronger  in  using  HPC  to 
advance science and industry, as  stated for example in IDC's 2010  study report for the 
European Commission1:  

The  EU  needs  to  create  and  implement  a  far-reaching  vision  for  high-performance 
computing (HPC) leadership, and suggests that it be based on this vision: Providing 
world-class HPC resources to make EU scientists, engineers, and analysts the 
most productive and innovative in the world in applying HPC to advance their 
research in the pursuit of scientific advancement and economic growth.  

In  particular,  Europe  has  significantly  narrowed  the  wide  gap  separating  the  most 
capable  U.S.,  Chinese  and  Japanese  supercomputers  from  their  European  counterparts. 
In  November  2010,  9  of  the  world's  50  most  powerful  supercomputers  were  located  in 
Europe  (www.top500.org).  Four  years  later,  Europe  hosted  19  of  the  top  50,  including 
the PRACE tier-0 supercomputers.  

European  HPC  investments  are  producing  excellent  returns-on-investment  (ROI)  for 
science  and  industry.  IDC  captured  detailed  ROI  information  on  143  European  HPC 
projects.  For  projects  that  generated  financial  returns,  each  euro  invested  in  HPC  on 
average returned €867 in increased revenue/income and €69 in profits.  

Europe achieved healthy HPC funding growth in 2010, 2011 and 2012, but Europe-wide 
funding  declined  heavily  in  2013  and  2014.  On  average,  however,  the  net  funding 
increase over the last five-year period was extremely good for pursuing HPC leadership. 
Significant investments will be needed, however, for pre-exascale systems in the period 
2019-2020  and  exascale  systems  in  2022  (see  the  financial  section  of  this  report).  IDC 
estimates  that  the  overall  European-wide  HPC  R&D  investments,  supercomputer 
purchases,  and  related  services  in  2010  amounted  to  approximately  €1.8  billion:  €715 
million  in  purchases  of  supercomputers,  plus  €90  million  (in  supporting  investments, 
integration services and professional services); plus ~€850 million (storage, software and 
repair  services  purchased  with  the  computers);  plus  ~€30  million  (from  the  EC);  and 
~€90 million (R&D by vendors and users). Note that these are IDC estimates, as there is 
no European tracking of these numbers at this time. 

Overall, the main actors—the European Commission, PRACE and ETP4HPC, have done an 
admirable job of coordinating with each other to advance the European HPC strategy, but 
more needs to be done.  To amass the €1 billion-plus in funding needed to acquire pre-
exascale and exascale supercomputers in globally competitive time frames, the Member 
States  will  need  to  find  a  way  to  pool  resources  and  the  EC  will  need  to  find  a  way  to 
contribute  a  significant  portion  of  the  funding  (IDC  recommendation:  50%).  As  IDC 
stressed in our 2010 report to the Commission, adequate investments in software will be 
one  of  the  most  important  determinants  of  future  HPC  leadership.  In  addition,  the 
Commission may need to contribute to the escalating operating expenses associated with 
PRACE tier-0 supercomputers.  

1 A Strategic Agenda for European Leadership in Supercomputing: HPC 2020 – IDC Final Report of 
the HPC Study for the DG Information Society of the European Commission. 2010. 

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The  PRACE  peer-review  system  has  enabled  fair  access  to  leading  supercomputers 
(infrastructure)  by  scientists,  and  more  recently  industrial  engineers,  from  throughout 
Europe.  Greater  outreach  is  needed  to  industry,  especially  SMEs.  The  PRACE  2.0 
financing  scheme  (not  yet  defined)  will  likely  aim  to  spread  the  burden  more  equitably 
among PRACE members but may risk curtailing access for scientists from Member States 
that  are  unable  or  unwilling  to  make  their  assigned  contributions.  HPC  procurements  in 
Europe  should  make  greater  use  of  PPI  mechanisms,  and  ETP4HPC  and  Member  States 
within PRACE should coordinate closely to ensure that the ETP4HPC roadmap reflects the 
innovations  PRACE  members  and  others  would  like  to  procure.  The  aims  here  are  to 
accelerate  HPC  innovations  by  European  suppliers  (as  ETP4HPC  is  already  doing),  and 
also  to  increase  the  likelihood  that  these  innovations  will  be  incorporated  into 
supercomputer  procurements  that  enable  the  European  technologies  to  mature  in  real-
world customer environments. 

At the very high end of the supercomputers segment, Europe has significantly narrowed 
the  former  wide  gap  separating  the  most  capable  U.S.  and  Japanese  supercomputers 
from  their  European  counterparts.  Spending  increased  substantially  in  the  EU/EU+  for 
large supercomputers  from 2009 to 2012, but then declined. European overall spending 
on  large  supercomputers  grew  from  112  million  euros  in  2009,  to  658  million  in  2012, 
then down to 362 million euros in 2014. In November 2010, shortly after the founding of 
PRACE,  9  of  the  world's  50  most  powerful  supercomputers  were  located  in  Europe 
(www.top500.org). Four years later, in November 2014, Europe hosted 19 of the top 50, 
including  the  PRACE  tier-0  supercomputers.  The  aggregate  peak  performance  of  the 
Europe-based  supercomputers  rose  more  than  ten-fold  during  this  period,  from  4.3 
petaflops in November 2010 to 48.9 petaflops four years later. Clearly, Europe's standing 
as  a  provider  of  high-end  supercomputing  resources  advanced  in  both  absolute  and 
relative (worldwide) terms during this period. 

From a technical standpoint, Europe's HPC community, building on existing and planned 
EU-wide  HPC  development  initiatives,  is  well  positioned  to  exploit  a  strong  base  of 
indigenous  and  foreign  technologies  across  its  commercial,  academic  and  government 
sectors  to  assemble  exascale  HPC  capability  that  could,  in  some  critical  application 
sectors, achieve world-class stature or even global leadership. A clearer path is needed, 
however,  for  driving  innovation  into  supercomputer  procurements  and  pooling  enough 
money to deploy pre-exascale and exascale supercomputers in globally competitive time 
frames. 

Progress on the Four EU HPC Action Plan Objectives 

The overall European HPC strategy is built on a foundation of key objectives that are the 
source  and  inspiration  for  specific  strategy  actions.  IDC  has  examined  progress  against 
these key objectives in detail, and after lengthy discussions with many EU and other HPC 
technology and policy experts, offers the following assessment. 

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Assessment of Specific Action Plan Objectives: 

1.  Provide  a  world-class  European  HPC  infrastructure,  benefitting  a  broad 
range  of  academic  and  industry  users,  and  especially  SMEs,  including  a 
workforce well trained in HPC.  
•  Strong  progress  was  made  in  deploying  large  HPC  systems  across  Europe, 
primarily  funded  by  the  Member  States,  with  important  secondary  funding 
support  by  the  European  Commission  through  PRACE.  Although  the  overall 
level  of  funding  was  considerably  lower  than  recommended  in  IDC's  2010 
report  (as  shown  in  Section  5,  Table  5.G),  Europe  nevertheless  made 
outstanding  progress  in  getting  Europe  "back  in  the  pack"  of  top  global 
research areas over the last four years.  

2.  Ensure independent access to HPC technologies, systems and services  

•  Hardware technologies from European suppliers today have a very small share 
and  presence  in  HPC  across  Europe.  Some  European  software  companies  are 
highly  successful  in  Europe  and  across  the  world.  ETP4HPC  collaborations 
between European and non-European suppliers will benefit European scientists 
and  engineers.  A  large  majority  of  the  European  HPC  stakeholders  IDC 
interviewed  agreed  that  European  scientists  and  engineers  require  access  to 
best-in-class  HPC  technologies  and  systems,  no  matter  where  in  the  world 
they come from. 

3.  Establish  a  pan-European  HPC  governance  scheme  to  pool  enlarged 
resources  and  increase  efficiency,  including  through  the  strategic  use  of 
joint and pre-commercial procurement 
•  Pre-commercial  procurement  (PCP)  and  public  procurement  of  innovative 
solutions  (PPI)  are  underutilized  in  Europe  today.  PCP  and  PPI  are  key 
mechanisms used by the governments of the  United States,  China and Japan 
(Europe's  main  rivals  for  HPC  leadership)  to  drive  commercial  competitive 
advantage and to advance suppliers of indigenous technologies. European HPC 

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stakeholders  greatly  prefer  PPI  (and  related  mechanisms)  over  PCP  as  a  way 
to advance innovation.  There is no central procurement agent in Europe with 
the  financial  ability  and  motivation  to  exploit  PPI  or  related  mechanisms  on 
behalf of Europe, as needed to compete successfully with the U.S., China and 
Japan. 

4.  Ensure the EU's position as a global actor 

•  Advances  in  highly  parallel  software  will  be  one  of  the  most  important 
determinants  of  future  global  HPC  leadership.  Europe  has  world-class 
strengths  in  highly  parallel  software.  The  de-emphasizing  of  funding  for 
exascale  software  development  by  the  U.S.  government  has  created  an 
opportunity  for  Europe  to  gain  an  important  advantage.  EESI's  exceptional 
work  has  set  the  stage  for  this.  The  cPPP  on  HPC,  established  with  the 
ETP4HPC with €700 million in EC funding, provides a framework for making it 
happen, especially through the centers of excellence and continued EESI work. 

Assessment of the progress and success of the six Strategy Actions: 

Based  on  the  overarching  objectives  defined  in  the  European  HPC  plan,  specific  policy-
related  strategy  actions  were  created.  For  those  six  strategy  actions,  IDC  offers  the 
following further assessment and recommendations.  

 Note: For the sake of clarity, the content of this section will necessarily repeat some of the content 
of the preceding section.  

1)  Governance  at  EU  level:  seeks  adequacy,  openness,  and  efficiency  of  the 
current  organisations  (e.g.,  PRACE  and  ETP4HPC)  to  structure  the  industrial  and 
scientific  stakeholders,  to  steer  the  high  level  objectives  and  policies  on  HPC,  to 
pool  available  HPC  resources  across  the  Member  States,  and  to  efficiently 
implement the HPC strategy.  

•  The  key  organizations  contributing  to  the  implementation  of  the  European 
HPC strategy—the European Commission, PRACE and EPT4HPC—have done 
an admirable job of advancing Europe's position in the few short years since 
the  2012  Communication.  No  single  European  Member  State  has  the 
financial and related means to compete effectively with the U.S., China and 
Japan for HPC leadership. If Europe is to be an HPC leader, it will therefore 
be  necessary  for  Member  States  to  coordinate  their  HPC  strategies  more 
closely,  including  the  pooling  of  funding,  and  for  the  EC  and  the  Member 
States  to  coordinate  even  more  closely.  This  tighter  coordination  will 
require some adjustments to existing governance rules and practices by all 
parties.    Tensions  already  present  within  Europe's  loosely  coupled, 
collaborative  HPC  governance  model  will  likely  grow  as  the  exascale 
computing  era  approaches,  unless 
issues  are  addressed. 
Governments of some Member States hosting PRACE tier-0 supercomputers 
are  reluctant to continue funding 100% of the substantial, rising operating 
expenses  associated  with  these  computers.  They  would  like  some  relief 
from  the  Commission  and/or  from  other  PRACE  members.  Access  to  more 
of the tier-0 supercomputers' cycles may need to be secured for European, 
as opposed to national, use.  

these 

• 

In carrying out this study, IDC found that even some of the most prominent 
members  of  Europe's  HPC  community  did  not  adequately  understand  the 
impact of governance models on the European HPC strategy—or how all the 
pieces  of  the  strategy  fit  together.  Stronger  communications  outreach  is 
needed to convey this understanding. 

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2)  Financial  envelope  for  HPC spans  current investment levels for the acquisition 
of high-end HPC resources in Europe, and analysis of required levels to meet the 
Action Plan objectives (including investments for system acquisition, training, HPC 
software and applications, etc.).   

•  The  European  Commission's  HPC  investment  levels  have  grown  substantially, 
through a range of initiatives including the €700 million, multi-year investment 
to  support  the  future-oriented  cPPP  being  carried  out  with  the  ETP4HPC.  But 
Commission  contributions  have  fallen  short  of  the  amounts  recommended  in 
IDC's 2010 report, and spending within PRACE has not yet reached the level of 
commitments.  The  Commission  has  contributed  to  support  PRACE,  and  plans 
to  start  helping  to  support  some  procurements  for  large  supercomputers  in 
2016. 

3)  The  implementation  of  funding  mechanisms,  such  as  pre-commercial 
procurement  in  the  public  sector  (the  major  buyer  of  high-end  HPC)  and  pooling 
of research resources, to support HPC suppliers for developing a leadership-class 
HPC system about every 2 years. 

•  As  noted  earlier,  PPI  and  related  mechanisms  are  crucial  for  attaining  and 
maintaining  HPC  leadership.  Europe's  rivals  for  HPC  leadership—the  U.S., 
China  and  Japan—regularly  employ  these  mechanisms.  These  mechanisms 
are  used  today  only  occasionally  in  Europe.  No  clear  strategy  exists  for 
pooling resources to finance the acquisition of pre-exascale supercomputers 
in 2020 and exascale supercomputers in 2022, in order to Europe to remain 
competitive with the U.S., China and Japan.  

4)  Development  of  European  state-of-the-art  supply  capabilities  needed  for 
European  independent  access  to  key  HPC  technologies,  systems,  services  and 
tools  for  Europe  (including  level  of  pre-commercial  procurement  and  other  R&D 
investments,  support  to  European  HPC  suppliers,  jobs  in  European  HPC  supply 
industry, etc.). 

•  ETP4HPC  is  dedicated  to  expanding  and  strengthening  Europe's  HPC  supply 
chain. The European Commission is contributing €700 million to advance  the 
cPPP  on  HPC  in  partnership  with  ETP4HPC.  A  large  majority  of  the  European 
HPC  stakeholders  IDC  interviewed  agreed  that  European  scientists  and 
engineers  require  access  to  best-in-class  HPC  technologies  and  systems,  no 
matter  where  in  the  world  they  come  from.  It  is  especially  important  that 
European suppliers not only participate in exascale technology innovation, but 
also gain experience and feedback in real-world HPC customer  environments. 
For  this  reason,  ETP4HPC  roadmaps  for  indigenous  technology  development 
need  to  be  linked  as  closely  as  possible  to  the  requirements  that  will  drive 
supercomputer procurements. 

5) Industrial exploitation of HPC including regional/national centers for the access 
of  industry  (including  SMEs)  to  HPC  (HPC  Competence  Centers),  industrial  HPC-
based  development  and  innovation,  education  and  training  in  HPC,  HPC  trained 
workforce in Europe, and more.  

•  Europe already has some of the world's leading HPC centers for collaborations 
with  industry,  including  SMEs.  Many  of  the  European  HPC  stakeholders  IDC 
interviewed  for  this  study  agreed  that  European  programs  supporting 
industrial  access  and  collaboration,  such  as  PRACE,  SHAPE  and  Fortissimo, 
have  been  successful  but  need  to  do  more.  Only  a  small  percentage  of 
European  SMEs  that  could  be  helped  by  HPC  seem  aware  of  these 
job  of 
opportunities, 
communicating the HPC strategy, resources, plans and contact persons to the 
broader HPC community, and in particular to industry.  

for  example.  The  EC  hasn’t  done  an  optimal 

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6) Ensuring a level playing field, in particular regarding inequalities in HPC market 
access  and  exploitation  obligations  regarding  intellectual  property  rights  of  HPC 
results generated in Horizon 2020. 

•  Europe  has  long  been  the  world's  most  open  HPC  market.  Government  HPC 
markets in the U.S., Japan and China all present barriers to non-domestic HPC 
suppliers,  although  the  private-sector  markets  in  these  countries  are  more 
open  and  both  government  and  private-sector  markets  are  generally  open  to 
non-domestic  commercial  software.  A  large  majority  of  European  HPC 
stakeholders  IDC  interviewed  for  this  study  agreed  that  European  scientists 
and  engineers  should  continue  to  have  access  to  the  world's  best 
supercomputer  systems,  no  matter  where  in  the  world  they  come  from. 
Specific  market  asymmetries  should  be  address  at  a  government  (EC)-to-
government level and not made part of Europe's HPC strategy. 

Overall Recommendations  

Based  on  an  examination  of  the  European  HPC  objectives  and  related  strategy  actions, 
IDC  offers  the  following  recommendations,  each  keyed  to  one  or  more  of  the  strategy 
actions.  

Recommendations on the Strategic Actions 

Based  on  the  progress  to-date  of  the  EU's  Strategy  Actions,  IDC  makes  the  following 
targeted recommendations: 

1) Expand Funding for HPC (Financial Envelope & Funding Mechanism, and Needed 
for Making Europe World Class in HPC). PRACE members and the EC should agree 
to provide significant funding support to acquire two pre-exascale supercomputers 
in  2019-2020  and  two  additional  exascale  supercomputers  in  2022.  One  path 
should  stress  European  pre-commercial  technology.  The  total  5  year  cumulative 

9 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
increase in HPC investments (for all parties) from 2016 to 2020 is €3.263 billion. 
The  European  Commission  should  extend  the  end  date  of  the  Action  Plan  from 
2020 to 2022, to match the expected exascale time frames of the U.S., China and 
Japan and make it easier to amass the funding levels recommended in this study. 
The Member States and the EC may need to adapt their practices in order to pool 
the money needed to fund exascale systems.  

2)  Improve  Communication  of  the  Strategy  (Supply Ecosystem and Needed for 
Making  Europe  World  Class  in  HPC).  The  European  Commission  should  create  a 
single  website  portal  enabling  access  to  comprehensive  information  on  the 
European HPC strategy. There needs to include a single person in charge and as a 
direct contact for information and for answering questions. This is key for getting 
more users, ISVs and SMEs involved.  

3)  Develop  the  HPC  Ecosystem  (European  Supply  Capabilities  and  Governance). 
ETP4HPC  should  continue  to  support  collaborations  involving  European  suppliers 
and (often much larger) non-European suppliers. This will accelerate the learning 
curve  of  some  European  suppliers  who  are  less  experienced.  European  suppliers 
will  benefit  from  competing  on  equal  terms  with  suppliers  not  based  in  Europe. 
Software  will  be  one  of  the  main  determinants  of  future  HPC  leadership  and 
Europe  is  very  strong  in  parallel  software  development.  ETP4HPC  or  another 
organization  in  Europe  should  create  a  clearinghouse  (online  storefront)  to  help 
disseminate, and in some cases commercialize, innovative European HPC software 
that is now in limited use.  

4)  Improve  Support  for  Industry  (Industrial Use of HPC). PRACE should consider 
promoting  SME  and  industry  adoption  of  HPC  with  a  SHAPE  initiative  that  lets 
SMEs  and  other  industrial  firms  that  are  new  to  HPC  try  it  out  without  cost,  and 
without  needing  to  show  scientific  merit.  ETP4HPC  should  ensure  that  software 
advances  meant  to  benefit  industry  have  strong,  continuous  input  from  industry 
representatives.  Europe  already  has  some  of  the  world's  leading  HPC  centers  for 
collaborations  with  industry,  including  SMEs.  Centers  with  strong  industrial 
experience  are  well  positioned  to  mentor  centers  with  less  experience  with 
industry. 

5)  Improve  Skills  and  Talent  (To Ensure Europe as a Global Actor and Needed 
for  Making  Europe  World  Class  in  HPC).  The  European  Commission  should 
undertake a communications campaign to update the image of HPC as a career 
choice. The Commission should also establish a task force to develop practical 
strategies for integrating HPC and related computational science education and 
training  more  fully  into  the  scientific  and  engineering  curricula  of  European 
universities. 

Additional Recommendations 

•  High  Performance  Data  Analysis  (HPDA).  This is the market for  Big Data 
workloads  that  are  complex  or  time-critical  enough  to  require  HPC  resources. 
No  dramatic  shift  in  the  European  HPC  strategy  is  needed  for  HPDA,  because 
most  HPDA,  today  and  in  the  near  term,  will  be  data-intensive  modeling  and 
simulation (M&S) that HPC sites have been running for decades, but there are 
many opportunities to expand in this key area.  

•  Cloud  Computing.  In IDC's worldwide studies of high performance computing 
(HPC)  end-user  sites,  the  proportion  of  sites  employing  cloud  computing—

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public or private—has  steadily grown from 13.8% in 2011, to 23.5%  in 2013, 
to  34.1%  in  2015.    As  with  HPDA,  IDC  believes  that  no  major  change  to 
Europe's HPC strategy is needed to accommodate the growing importance and 
technical evolution of public and private cloud computing. The challenge is less 
about  educating  users  about  cloud  computing  and  more  about  the  ability  of 
clouds to handle more types of HPC jobs over time. 

•  Co-Design.  The  EU  should  initiate  an  EU-wide  exascale  test  bed  program  to 
provide  strong  support  for  exascale  co-design  capabilities.  The  test  bed  program 
would  be  a  natural  extension  of  ETP4HPC's  role.  It  would  require  ETP4HPC  to 
collaborate  closely  with  PRACE  tier-0  supercomputer  hosting  members  to  test 
hardware and software technologies at large scale. 

•  Centers-of-Excellence.  These  fall  under  the  cPPP  on  HPC.  The  centers  should 
focus heavily on software—not just applications but also the whole  HPC software 
stack  (EESI  has  done  an  excellent  job  of  laying  the  groundwork  for  this).  At  a 
minimum, one center should focus on the software requirements of industry, and 
one center be devoted to HPDA.  

Acronyms Commonly Used in This Report 

The following acronyms appear frequently in this report:  

cPPP 
EESI 
ETP4HPC  
EU 
EU+ 
HPC 
PCP 
PPI 
PPP 
PRACE   
SHAPE   
SME 

Contractual Public Private Partnership  
European Exascale Software Initiative 
European Technology Platform for High Performance Computing 
European Union (of 28 Member States) 
European Union (28 Member States) plus Norway and Switzerland 
High Performance Computing 
Pre-Commercial Procurement 
Public Procurement of Innovative solutions 
Public-Private Partnership 
Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe 
SME HPC Adoption Programme in Europe 
Small and Medium-size Enterprise(s) 

11 

 
 
 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 
 
European Commission 

SMART  2014/0021  -  High  Performance  Computing  in  the  EU:  Progress  on  the 
Implementation of the European HPC Strategy  

Luxembourg, Publications Office of the European Union 

2015, 12 pages  

ISBN 978-92-79-50341-2 

doi:10.2759/351785 

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doi:10.2759/351785 ISBN 978-92-79-50341-2