ExCALIBUR HES DWAVE Quantum Annealing Credits

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In 2018, the Exascale Computing ALgorithms & Infrastructures for the Benefit of UK Research(ExCALIBUR) programme was proposed by the Met Office, CCFE and EPSRC (on behalf of UKRI). Thegoal of ExCALIBUR is to redesign high priority computer codes and algorithms, keeping UK research anddevelopment at the forefront of high-performance simulation science. The challenge spans many disciplinesand as such the programme of research will be delivered through a partnership between the Met Office andUKRI Research Councils. Research software engineers and scientists will work together to future proof theUK against the fast-moving changes in supercomputer designs. This combined scientific expertise will pushthe boundaries of science across a wide range of fields delivering transformational change at the cutting-edge of scientific supercomputing. As part of the ExCALIBUR initiative £4.5M in capital funding has beenset aside to develop a 4.5-year foresighting programme, ExCALIBUR Hardware and Enabling Software,which is the subject of this proposal.The £4.5m capital is intended to provide a testbed area that uses pre-commercial equipment for softwareprototyping and development. It has two main purposes: (1) to enable the software community to be readyto use commercial products effectively as soon as they come on to the market; and (2) to provide the UKRIHPC community with the ability to influence industry and the necessary knowledge to guide their purchasedecisions. This will ensure that facilities and the future UK National e-Infrastructure are in a position tomaximise value for money by getting the most powerful systems exactly suited to the communities' needs.This double-pronged approach will give UK researchers a competitive advantage internationally.ExCALIBUR will now establish a set of modest-sized, adaptable clusters dedicated solely to this purposeand embedded within established HPC environments. Although small, they need to be of a scale capableof carrying out meaningful performance studies. They are expected to be co-funded with industry partnersand will initially require investments of £200k-£300k each and will allow a range of future hardware to beassessed for its relevance to the delivery of UKRI science and innovation. The pre-commercial equipmentwill be refreshed and added to on a regular, likely to be annual, basis. This agile tactic is designed to takeadvantage of the different approaches across industry.ExCALIBUR can use the hardware piloting systems to drive software innovation across the UKRI researchcommunity. Researchers are rightly reluctant to invest time in code development to take advantage of newhardware which may not be available at scale for several years or may even prove not to have longevity -scientific leadership demands that research funding is used to deliver science results now. In addition,DiRAC and others will offer funded RSE effort to support the development work combined with access tonovel technologies within modest-sized systems, ExCALIBUR can lower the bar for engaging with theprocess of software re-engineering and encourage researchers to make the necessary (modest)investments of their time. In some cases, there may also be the potential for some immediate scienceoutputs by exploiting the proof-of-concept systems.ExCALIBUR will thus be able to provide an incentive for greater software innovation across the UKRIresearch communities and help to ensure that when novel technology is included in national services, thereare workflows that are already able to exploit it optimally. This will increase productivity across all UKRIcomputing services and enable UK researchers to use the latest hardware to deliver the largest and mostcomplex calculations, ensuring international leadership