Centre for High-Performance Computing & Visualisation (HPC&V)

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Scientists of the University of Groningen can use state-of-the-art high-performance computers as well as advanced facilities for visualisation and Virtual Reality (VR). The HPC&V, as part of the Computing Centre in the Smitsborg, supports the use.

Non-university departments can also benifit from paid services of the HPC&V.

High-performance computing

The University of Groningen (RUG) has a long tradition in providing its scientists with state-of-the-art facilities needed for excellence in computational science.

The ZEBRA was in 1958 the very first of a row of central computers with increasing peak performance. They belonged to the fastest computers of the moment and were called super or high-performance computers. The IBM BlueGene/L (2005) is the latest in the row, with more than 12.000 processors in a grid and a peak performance of about 36 TeraFlops: at the moment of installation fourth on the world list.

Nowadays, most computations can be done wth custom PC's. However, some very special computations, like simulations of natural phenomena, require very powerful (grid) computers. The IBM BlueGene/L is meant for the processing of LOFAR radio telescopes data.

Insight with visualisation and VR

The mathematician Richard Hamming once said: The purpose of computing is insight, not numbers. Visualisation is an excellent way of gaining insight in the numerical results of simulations and in LOFAR data. Visualisation and especially Virtual Reality require expensive equipment.

Presently the HPC&V supports a Reality Cube (Cave) and a Reality Theatre. The RUG has, like as in the field of high-performance computing, a long tradition in visualisation. This started in 1967 with a simple DYMEC plotter.

Part of

The HPC&C is one of the members of the Groningen Visualization Centre, a platform for all visualisation groups in the Groningen area.

The HPC&V is one of the three national centres for high performance computing of NWO (Dutch Organisation for Scientific Research).

The HPC&V is part of the Computer Centre of the RUG. A scientific board advices the management of the HPC&V Centre on technical and scientific issues

Research and Consultancy Centre (RCC) of the HPC&V

Industrial or governmental departments should as well benefit from the facilities of the HPC&V. A lot of the projects of the HPC&V were performed for these type of departments.

Please contact the RCC for  paid projects.