29.01.2009
Baden-Württemberg — frontrunner in simulation computing

The concentration of IT power at universities in the region has elevated Baden-Württemberg to the top of the high-performance computing league in Germany. “Baden-Württemberg has a unique cluster-based computing profile in training, research and its university hardware infrastructure,” according to Professor Michael Resch, Director of the High Performance Computing Center (HLRS) at the Universität Stuttgart. The highly advanced cluster in the “bwGRiD” makes the south west of Germany the “best equipped location for simulation computations in the whole of Germany,” adds Resch. The simulations which can be performed with these incredibly fast machines are now a well established and key feature of scientific research and industrial production in the region. This technology allows hazard free and purely virtual tests to be performed which would be far too expensive, complex or practically impossible in reality, says Resch. His institute is tasked with the coordination of the programme.

The innovative new computer network will be used in numerous research projects at eight of Baden-Württemberg’s nine universities.
Key research fields include:
- Microsystems technology and fluid mechanics (Freiburg),
- Mathematics and neuroscience (Heidelberg),
- Engineering science and compiler & tools (Karlsruhe),
- Biochemistry and theoretical physics (Konstanz),
- Economics, business management and computer algebra (Mannheim),
- Automotive simulations and particle simulation (Stuttgart),
- Astrophysics and bioinformatics (Tübingen) as well as
- Chemistry and molecular dynamics (Ulm).

Baden-Württemberg’s Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts has made four million euros of funding available in addition to the almost four million euros provided by the German government to ensure that parallel computer clusters at individual universities in south west Germany are quickly and reliably linked up to Germany’s D-Grid Initiative.

www.bw-grid.de