Scientific Advisory Board

The Scientific Advisory Board (Wetenschappelijk Adviesraad (WAR) in Dutch) is appointed by the university and advises the CIT on issues related to High Performance Computing and Visualization. The IT strategic plan 2005-2009 for the University of Groningen contains financial proposals for the replacement of equipment and extending HPC/V's activities.

On 13 July 2007, the Scientific Advisory Board recommended the following investments:

• Replacement and expansion of the current computer cluster. The advice is to double the current number of cores, to a new total of around 800 cores.
• Refurbishing and improvement of the visualization centre. The old installation needs replacement which creates the opportunity to improve the quality and usefulness of the centre. The aim is to increase the light output and resolution of the beamers. The advice included replacing the tracking by a system of infrared cameras.
• Special purpose computing. This relates to computers which are not useful for all computer problems, but can help some researchers to work in areas which are nearly impossible on normal computers. The Scientific Advisory Board is in favour of investing in a Bluegene (newer and faster architecture). However, the financing of this machine might turn out to be a problem.