Supercomputing’s superhero stands by for even greater power

The EU-funded, transcontinental grid, which links 12 of the world's fastest supercomputers, is now offering virtual community support – and its compute power is being extended to support that. According to Hermann Lederer, who runs DEISA's external relations, the aim is to stimulate new cooperative communities of researchers, with the offer of a new era of collaborative computing. Currently, DEISA is working with Europe's nuclear fusion research community, designing and running new and more realistic simulations, he says. Other emerging communities are looking at genetics of infectious diseases and their treatment. "That's our contribution," says Lederer, "to start providing support for existing science communities in Europe and to help form new ones." Since DEISA started, just four and a half years ago, its aggregated peak computing has risen by a factor of 300 to more than a petaflop – and it's still rising. "From three to five petaflop supercomputers will be installed in Europe by 2010," says Lederer. "The infrastructure for that has already been designed, built and installed by DEISA. All the services are in place. It's ready to go."