D7.2: Final Report on Applications Enabling

Task T7.1 “Enabling Applications Codes for PRACE Systems” in Work Package 7 (WP7) of PRACE-4IP aims to provide application enabling support for the HPC applications which are important for the European researchers and small and medium enterprises to ensure the applications can effectively exploit HPC systems. There were two activities in T7.1: T7.1.A Petascaling & Optimisation Support for Preparatory Access Projects: This activity provided code enabling and optimisation to European researchers as well as industrial projects to make their applications ready for Tier-0 systems. Projects can continuously apply for such services via the Preparatory Access Call Type C (PA C) with a cut-off every three months for evaluation of the proposals. Nine Preparatory Access cut-offs have been carried out in PRACE-4IP. The report focuses on the optimization work and results gained by the completed projects in PRACE-4IP if those were not reported already as part of the earlier deliverable D7.1. In total five PA C projects have finished their work since the last deliverable. The statistics about the PA C calls in PRACE-4IP as well as a description of the call organization itself is also included. The results of the completed projects have also been documented in white papers, which were published on the PRACE-RI website. In addition to the results achieved in the PA C activity, this deliverable will introduce a new type of PRACE Preparatory Access Call: PA Type D (PA D) which was established within PRACE-4IP and allows applicants to start their optimization work on a Tier-1 system with support from PRACE experts to ultimately reach Tier-0 system scalability. The document will present the call structure and provide initial statistics from the first cut-off, which took place in March 2017. All the applications that have been accepted by this program have seen an increase in terms of performance or scalability of the application. These tasks have enabled computing at the Petascale, in preparation for the road to Exascale. T7.1.B SHAPE: This activity continued the support for SHAPE (the SME HPC Adoption Programme in Europe). SHAPE aims to raise awareness and provide European SMEs with the expertise necessary to take advantage of the innovation possibilities created by High-Performance Computing (HPC), thus increasing their competitiveness. It holds regular calls, and successful applicants to the SHAPE programme get support effort from a PRACE HPC expert and access to machine time at a PRACE centre. In collaboration with the SME, the PRACE partner helps them try out their ideas for utilising HPC to enhance their business. This report focusses on the second and third call of SHAPE, looking at the results of the projects and lessons learned from the perspective of both the SMEs and the PRACE partners. In addition, it provides follow-up reports from the SME projects, which were completed last year, in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the SHAPE programme in terms of the SMEs’ ongoing engagement with HPC. SHAPE participants have reported many positive outcomes for the businesses involved in the activity including tangible measures of the Return on Investment: new staff people hired, increasing sales and new business, lower costs, continued HPC Access, in-house HPC systems deployment, integration into the HPC ecosystem and engagement with other national and European industry engagement programmes