High performance computing, or HPC, can help generate new business value by unlocking the power of data. It can also allow research to take a big leap forward. Luxembourg has a unique HPC infrastructure that is open to companies as well as to researchers.
However, many companies may wonder “what is HPC?” To answer this question – and many more – about high-performance computing, also known as supercomputing, Luxinnovation is organising a series of webinars for companies and other organisations interested in this topic.
Welcoming HPC newcomers
The “HPC Thursdays” webinar series provides an understanding of the benefits of using a supercomputer. It also looks at what a supercomputer is, how it works, and the skills needed to use one.
Each webinar presents concrete examples of applications in different domains to help participants understand the value added of using a supercomputer, and to inspire future users in order to boost their innovation activities.
The HPC Thursdays webinars are designed for newcomers in the supercomputing world, from all sectors of industry and all disciplines of research as well as from public administration. This is the perfect exploratory path to understand the basics of HPC.
HPC benefits
The first webinar on 20 January focused on the benefits of HPC. HPC is an enabler of innovation and can drive significant financial returns for companies of all types and sizes in all sectors (watch the replay for the estimated numbers). HPC can already today be an essential driver of business and research competitiveness, and will be increasingly important in the future as the amount of data available doubles every two years, while we currently only use on average 5% of it.
There is a great potential for incorporating the exploitation of data into the business models of many companies. The Luxembourg HPC is modular and can be adapted to different company needs.
Power and speed
HPC is particularly useful for simulations that require a high resolution results in order to be able to look into the granularity of large problems involving huge amounts of data. HPC is for a high volume of data, larger than several GB.
HPC can also analyse data with unmatched speed, which considerably reduces the time needed to find a solution.
HPC is not only relevant for big companies and research institutes, but also for SMEs, as the large repository of success stories developed by the European project Fortissimo4EuroHPC demonstrates.
This first webinar also pointed out that there is not one single metric that can be used across all sectors to measure the benefits of HPC. The reasons for using supercomputing tend to be individual for each organisation and related to its strategic priorities.
Upcoming session
The HPC Thursdays webinar series now continues with online sessions twice per month on Thursdays from 11:00 to 12:00.
We invite you to register to the second session, “Introducing supercomputers, and how to use them efficiently”, which will be held on Thursday 3 February 2022. We will learn the basic components of a supercomputer, why it is necessary to know them before using one, how the HPC works and the skills needed to use it.