NERSC HPC RequirementsReviews: Target 2014

NERSC and the Office of Advanced Computational Research held six program requirements reviews with each DOE Office of Science program office from 2009 to 2011 to determine what scientists and their teams need in order to meet DOE mission requirements in 2014. The result of these reviews are the six reports below, which contain requirements for each office, supported by 8-12 individual science case studies.

Summary of High Level Findings

Here is summary of aggregate findings for the six program offices: Basic Energy Sciences (BES), Biological and Environmental Research (BER). High Energy Physics (HEP), Nuclear Physics (NP), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES), and Advanced Computational Science and Research (ASCR). 

Compute Hours Needed in 2014

Scientists and their teams of researchers need 15.6 billion hours of compute time at NERSC is 2014 to meet DOE Office of Science mission goals. This is 10 times total usage at NERSC in 2011.

Common Priority Needs Across All Offices

• More allocation of computing time.
• Support for growing data needs.
• Support for high-throughput workflows and ensemble runs.
• Support for standard software applications, libraries and tools.
• Highly available, stable systems.
• Rapid, predictable job turnaround.
• Help porting codes to new architectures if necessary.

NOTE: For some of the early reviews, extrapolation to quanitative 2014 needs were required because a common target date for all six reviews had not been established.

Program Requirements Reviews