Q1. When will the PRACE infrastructure become operational?
PRACE, the Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe, has the goal to create the prerequisites for a pan-European HPC service and to move into the implementation phase by 2010. The service will comprise three to five superior HPC centers deploying systems at the highest performance level (tier-0) strengthened by regional and national supercomputing centers.

Q2. Who can use the PRACE infrastructure?
PRACE’s HPC infrastructure will be open to European researchers and industrial users.

Q3. I’m not from Europe. Can I have access to the infrastructure or collaborate with PRACE in other activities?
You have to be part of the European research or industrial user community to access the PRACE infrastructure.

Q4. What is the difference between the PRACE Initiative and the PRACE project?
The PRACE Initiative is broader mainly aiming to promote the uptake of the Petaflop HPC service, while the PRACE project is an EC funded preparatory action aiming to prepare the creation of the HPC service.

Q5. How can other European countries join, contribute to, or benefit from PRACE?
Four countries became additional general partners of the PRACE Initiative in 2008 by signing the Memorandum of Understanding. Contact the PRACE Coordinator via this form.

Q6. Is PRACE comparable to TeraGrid?
TeraGrid is a US based infrastructure for open scientific research. The PRACE infrastructure will be a European service open for both scientific and industrial use.

Q7. What is the relationship between PRACE and DEISA?
PRACE is closely collaborating with DEISA, the Distributed European Infrastructure for Supercomputing Applications. DEISA is providing access to European tier-1 systems and offers a small part of their computing resources to European projects. PRACE and DEISA are working together on middleware developments for ecosystem integration.

The European HPC performance pyramid

Q8. What is the relationship between PRACE and EGEE or EGI?
Both PRACE and DEISA have close links with and EGEE, Enabling Grids for E-sciencE, and EGI, European Grid Initiative, with the goal to ensure grid access and interoperability between the infrastructures.

Q9. Which software is available on the PRACE systems?
PRACE offers a wide range of applications on the different architectures and works on petascaling and optimising them.  In addition, it offers the middleware stack defined and implemented by DEISA adapted to the specific needs of PRACE.

Read more from a press release about the applications.

Q10. How can I get access to the Petaflop/s systems?
PRACE is defining a peer review process to ensure that high quality research will receive resources on the PRACE systems. The details will be published before the Research Infrastructure becomes operational.

Q11. How can I get access to the PRACE prototypes?
PRACE selected a broad coverage of promising architectures for Petaflop/s-class system prototypes in 2008. These prototypes are being installed at six partner sites in 2008 and in 2009.

A light-weight process has been defined to access the prototypes. For further information please see:
www.prace-project.eu/prototype-access

Q12. What is a Petaflop/s?
In computing flop/s is an acronym meaning FLoating point OPerations per Second. The flop/s is a measure of a computer's performance. One Petaflop/s means computer performance of 10¹⁵ flop/s.

Learn more from Powerpoint presentation