Bull and partners from SYSTEM@TIC PARIS-REGION global competitiveness cluster announce launch of the POPS (PetaOperations Per Second) project
POPS project aims to develop new generation of high-power Petaflop-capacity applications and associated servers
Democratizing access to intensive computing to accelerate innovation and make it an engine for growth
Les Clayes-sous-Bois,
December
6, 2007 -
Bull and its partners from the SYSTEM@TIC PARIS-REGION global competitiveness cluster are today announcing the launch of the POPS R&D collaborative project, aimed at validating future servers and accelerating development work on high-power Petaflop-capacity applications.
A major mission
Their mission is of crucial importance: there is a need to support research in France and in Europe into developing new applications for tomorrow's world, which will fully capitalize on the massive supercomputers likely to emerge from around 2010. These applications will need to be capable of exploiting the parallel power provided by tens of thousands of processors integrated into these supercomputers.
These applications will apply in almost all areas of the economy: Web semantics, very large-scale databases to support life sciences, tariff grid optimization, decision support in the automotive industry, support for designing new medications... from industry to fundamental research, from aeronautics to finance and bio-sciences, from digital simulation to optimization...
Focusing the Systems Design and Development Tools within the SYSTEM@TIC PARIS-REGION cluster, the POPS project is to be launched officially in Bull's Paris offices by Dominique Vernay, Chairman of the cluster; Gérard Poirier, Chairman of the Systems Design and Development Tools Special Interest Group (Groupe Thématique Outils de Conception et Développement de Systèmes) and Pierre Leca, Vice-Chairman; and Claude Camozzi, the POPS project co-ordinator.
The French Ministry of Finance, the Regional Council of Yvelines and that of Essonne have co-funded the POPS project.
Democratizing access to computing power: a major challenge when it comes to accelerating research and innovation, and preparing for tomorrow's power, today
The POPS project will enable companies and research centers to start preparing now for tomorrow's parallel applications, so they can benefit from the power that future supercomputers will offer as soon as they become available. The POPS project therefore offers enterprises - particularly small to medium-sized businesses - and the research partners involved in the project, the opportunity to look several years ahead. This will, of course, be a crucial factor affecting the competitiveness and independence of France and of Europe more widely, in the face of the vast research and industrial capability wielded today by North America, and in the near future by Asia.
Intensive computing: a valuable tool for sustainable development
In the current context - where sustainable development is becoming a major challenge for the world economy and the planet - intensive computing is emerging as one of man's most promising tools. With its capacity to simulate and optimize the most complex of the world's phenomena, it will accelerate research, development and time-to-market for new products and services, and under optimum environmental conditions. It will, for example, enable the development of energy-efficient means of transport, that consume and pollute less, and speed up research into new forms of power generation, help in the introduction of new molecules and new components in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries and agricultural research, giving us a much better understanding than we have today of the potential impact all these may have on our eco-systems. Computer simulation on a very large scale is therefore becoming an indispensable tool when it comes to ensuring that sustainability is an integral factor in industrial growth.
SYSTEM@TIC PARIS-REGION, a tight-knit group of industrial and academic partners key to innovation in the Ile-de-France region
Competitiveness clusters bring together public and private sector research centers in a given geographic locality, in a partnership-based approach designed to encourage synergies around collaborative, innovative projects.
At the heart of the digital revolution, the SYSTEM@TIC PARIS-REGION competitiveness cluster brings together some 260 major scientific and industry players in the Ile-de-France, mainly working in the area of software systems, focusing their activities on end-user markets with a significant social dimension (including transport, telecoms and security). Working around these themes, the cluster has set out its mission as being to grow the economy, and increase business competitiveness and employment, leveraging innovation, training and partnership.
As a true catalyst for innovative technological projects, SYSTEM@TIC PARIS-REGION has so far supported the development of 78 collaborative R&D programs representing an investment of ¿465 million, ¿176 million of which has been contributed by the French State, the French National Research Agency (ANR) and Small Business Financing and Support Agency (OSEO), and local authorities.
The partners involved in the POPS project are: Bull, CAPS ENTREPRISE, CEA LIST, CEA DAM, CS, Dassault-Aviation, EDF, ESI-GROUP, EURODECISION, IBBMC - the molecular bio-chemistry and bio-physics and cellular research institute (CNRS, university of Paris 'SUD 11'), IBISC (University of Evry Val d'Essonne), IFP - the French petroleum institute, INT/ARTEMIS, IRISA (INRIA research unit, Rennes), ITACA (University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, CEA DAM), the department of MAS (Mathematics Applied to Systems, ECOLE CENTRALE PARIS), MEDIT, NewPhenix, Resonate MP4
Agenda
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New projects: Systems Design and Development Tools Special Interest Group (OCDS)
Gérard Poirier, Chairman, OCDS Special Interest Group - Dassault-Aviation
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POPS project: Presentation of the POPS project objectives and key hardware and software sub-projects
Claude Camozzi, POPS Project Co-ordinator, - Bull
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The challenge of the transition to petaflop capacity
Pierre Leca, Vice-Chairman, OCDS Special Interest Group, - CEA
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New applications in intensive computing
Producing and populating major databases in the life sciences
IBBMC and Medit
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Pricing and finance simulation grid optimization
EDF
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Decision support in the automotive industry
ESI Group and Eurodecision
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The WEB Semantic puzzle
CEA
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A project in synergy with the POPS project
Presenting the EHPOC-CS project
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Round table discussion
Led by Sylvain Dorschner, Managing Director SYSTEM@TIC PARIS-REGION
Involving representatives from the Essonne and Yvelines regional councils, and from the French General Directorate for Enterprises (DGE)
Press contact
SYSTEM@TIC PARIS-REGION
Aurélie Jeanne - Tel: +33 (0)1 69 31 60 89 - a.jeanne@systematic-paris-region.org
About Bull, Architect of an Open World
Bull is an Information Technology company, dedicated to helping Corporations and Public Sector organizations optimize the architecture, operations and the financial return of their Information Systems and their mission-critical related businesses.
Bull focuses on open and secure systems, and as such is the only European-based company offering expertise in all the key elements of the IT value chain.
For more information visit: http://www.bull.com
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