MidPlus: A Centre of Excellence for Computational Science, Engineering and Mathematics

我们建议建立一个卓越的计算科学，工程和数学中心（MidPlus），服务于从伦敦到中部地区的M1/M6走廊，最初基于四所领先的大学，这些大学在跨机构合作，工业合作和计算研究方面具有杰出的资质：沃里克，伯明翰，诺丁汉和玛丽女王。我们专注于这一地区，因为地理上的接近极大地促进了与工业合作伙伴的联系和持续互动，特别是对中小企业来说。MidPlus地理位置优越，可为英国汽车、航空航天、生物医学、材料和创意行业的许多组织提供服务。随着MidPlus的发展，我们将把这种伙伴关系扩大到这些公司和其他大学。这个卓越中心将在电子基础设施方面投入300万英镑（本次EPSRC电话会议提供160万英镑，合作大学提供140万英镑），将提供：* 通过功能集群提供高性能计算（HPC）（沃里克; 2700个核心、InfiniBand、一些GPU和大内存SMP节点）将与沃里克现有的集群相结合（2011年5月投入使用）创建一个6000个核心的集群，从而最大限度地扩大大型并行作业的范围;以及高吞吐量集群（QMUL，2900个核心），以促进需要多次运行以跨越大参数空间的项目。*数据储存和档案设施（伯明翰和诺丁汉的数据完整性镜像），以实现研究数据的中长期存储（最初容量约为1 PB），以及管理结构，以实现基于元数据的搜索和检索，并安全地实现一系列用户指定的隐私级别。开发自动化数据老化协议，以将数据连续迁移到适当的长期存储技术;扩展我们支持的第2层HPC体系结构的范围;发展更大的一体化和更快的区域网络连接，数据和计算硬件。我们的集体研究专业知识以及对管理和使用电子基础设施的掌握与我们将安装的设备一样，对MidPlus的成功至关重要。因此，我们会在资讯基建的基础上，建立一个知识性的上层建筑，以：* 积极促进跨专业和跨机构的合作;* 提供一个协调的系统和行政支援队伍，让具备专业知识的行业使用这些设施，以应付内部对电脑设施的高峰需求，或作为另一个建立本身电脑设施的选择;* 提供专业知识基础，以促进工业界使用这资讯基建;* 建立策略性架构，以维持和发展区内的电子基建。这个智慧型的上层建筑将有助中小企业提供比单纯的电子基建更有价值的服务，工业云计算服务。

We propose to establish a Centre of Excellence for Computational Science, Engineering and Mathematics (MidPlus) that serves the M1/M6 corridor from London to the Midlands, initially based on four leading universities with outstanding credentials for cross-institutional collaboration, industrial partnership, and computational research: Warwick, Birmingham, Nottingham and Queen Mary. We focus on this region because geographical proximity greatly facilitates outreach and ongoing interactions with industrial partners-especially for SMEs. MidPlus is well located to serve many organisations within the UK's automotive, aerospace, biomedical, materials and creative industries. We will extend this partnership to such companies, and other Universities, as MidPlus develops.This Centre of Excellence will be established with an initial investment in e-Infrastructure of £3M (£1.6M from this EPSRC call and £1.4M from the partner Universities) that will provide:* High performance Computing (HPC) through a capability cluster (Warwick; 2700 cores, infiniBand, some GPU and large-memory SMP nodes) to be combined with Warwick's existing cluster (commissioned 05/2011) to create a 6000 core cluster and so maximise scope for large massively parallel jobs; and a high throughput cluster (QMUL, 2900 cores) to facilitate projects that require multiple runs to span large parameter spaces.* Data storage and archive facilities (mirrored at Birmingham and Nottingham for data integrity) to enable mid- and long-term storage of research data (initially ~1 PB capacity), and the management structures to enable metadata-based search and retrieval with secure implementation of a range of user-specified levels of privacy.In the longer term we will: extend the capacity of the data store; develop an automated data-aging protocol to migrate data, successively, to appropriate longer-term storage technologies; extend the range of tier-2 HPC architecture we support; and develop greater integration of, and faster regional network connections between, the data and compute hardware.Our collective research expertise and mastery of managing and using e-Infrastructure is as crucial to the success of MidPlus as is the equipment we will install. We will therefore build an intellectual superstructure on top of the e-Infrastructure that will:* actively promote collaborations that cross disciplinary and institutional boundaries;* provide a coordinated systems and administrative support team to enable industries with existing expertise to use these facilities-either to deal with the peaks in their internal demand for computer facilities or as an alternative to establishing their own;* provide an expertise-base to nurture new industrial use of this e-Infrastructure;* create a strategic framework within which to sustain and develop the regional e-Infrastructure.This intellectual superstructure will enable MidPlus to offer services that add much more value than could be obtained from the bare e-Infrastructure or, indeed, from industrial cloud computing services.