Supercomputing strategy recommended to European laboratories

A newly published supercomputing strategy suggests a Europe-wide coordination of laboratories in a number of research areas.

Topics including environmental sustainability, particle physics, high-performance software and hardware, cloud computing and energy efficiency are all covered by the plan.

Entitled A Strategic Agenda for European Leadership in Supercomputing: HPC 2010, the report was compiled for the European Commission by electronics industry specialist IDC.

It is the first recommendation of concerted effort from laboratories across the continent on supercomputing-related issues, IDC says.

The aim of the report is to safeguard the continent's leadership on the specific areas covered, across industry and the scientific disciplines.

Feedback on the report is welcomed by the HPC User Forum, a group dedicated to discussing and forecasting trends in high-performance computing.

IDC sits on the steering committee of the forum, while its membership includes big-brand blue-chip companies along with academic institutions such as the University of Manchester.