HPC-UK: a new resource for UK researchers

The core resource is an open source, community website that provides links to facilities, information on HPC training and how to access HPC facilities, and support to enable researchers to get the most out of HPC applications. Anyone can contribute to the website, note issues or request features through GitHub.

Facilities

It is difficult for researchers to know what HPC facilities are available, and the differences between them. HPC-UK provides an accurate list of the HPC facilities available to UK researchers, both from the UK and internationally. To make the list as relevant as possible, it concentrates on those that have publicised access routes for UK researchers.

Access

It can also be difficult to know how to access HPC facilities. HPC-UK brings together all access routes, making it easy for researchers to assess their options and plan applications. Access routes can vary according to the scale of facilities, and HPC-UK offers a simple way to find out which routes are available on which facilities.

Training

Providing researchers with the skills to exploit HPC facilities is key to getting the most out of the UK investment in HPC. HPC-UK offers a single portal to the HPC training available across the UK and online.

The training section contains links to different HPC training options, but in future we will provide a live list of upcoming courses to make it as easy as possible to find out what is available.

Applications

HPC software generally has a much longer lifetime than the hardware in a particular facility, and is at least as important to researchers for the effective use of HPC.

HPC-UK provides information on the performance of applications on different HPC facilities to help researchers choose the correct facility for their research and optimise their use of resources. Descriptions of how to compile different applications on various HPC facilities are also provided to help researchers and those who support them to compile their applications on different HPC architectures.

Future plans

We intend to provide a list of local UK HPC Champions to allow researchers to speak in person about their use (or potential use) of HPC, and to increase the amount of application benchmarking information available.

HPC-UK is a collaboration between EPCC, the UK Association of Research Software Engineers, and sites running UK national HPC facilities.

To contribute to HPC-UK please feel free to use the GitHub repository or get in touch via the website:

www.hpc-uk.ac.uk