Challenges and opportunities of hybrid computing systems

Abstract

The advent of specialised processors and the movement towards multi-core processors lead to an increased complexity for the application developers as well as for computing centres aiming to deliver computing resources for a wider community. While the increasing variety of different computing architectures is typically seen as a challenge, this article shows-based on an application example of a coupled aero-acoustics simulation-the opportunities for energy and cost efficient simulations. Additionally the results are put in context of the prototyping activity of the Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE), and the potential benefits of a hybrid computing systems for compute service providers are discussed. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010.