HPC 2014-15 | Markets


of the capability. Australia is thus at a crossroads, in that the potential of future procurements may not be realised in the absence of a much heightened investment in skills and soſtware development capability. While there are benefits arising from a


requirement for co-investment, its focus on recurrent operations has limited the building of a significant soſtware developmental capability of the type required to carry the country into the high-petascale and exascale eras. While there is significant work underway to reengineer major community codes to scale more highly, and to be prepared for many core architectures, the needs outstrip both the financial resources and the in-country skills-base to undertake the work. Although in specific areas, such as the data processing applications used for radio astronomy, where there has been investment in soſtware infrastructure that exploits accelerator technologies, these focused efforts do not translate easily to the wider research community across multiple science domains. Australia will need to prioritise an investment


in a national computational sciences capability, of the kind found in major national laboratories and centres, and one that is closely linked with the university sector – to build skills at undergraduate and postgraduate level, with research studies


being intimately linked with the work of science agencies and industry.


Conclusion Australian investments in HPC over the past decade or more have had a substantial transformative effect on national research and innovation. University researchers in all fields are increasingly dependent on HPC access for the international competitiveness of their work, as are the national science agencies in working towards nationally beneficial outcomes in priorities such as the environment, resources, future technologies, and health. Industry uptake is rising. Indeed, one start-up from university IP, which was sold recently to a US multinational for $76M, would not have gained a foothold had it not been for national investments in HPC. With research becoming increasingly data-


driven and data-intensive, the convergence of computation and data in comprehensive and strongly integrated environments seems to be the right model for Australia, given its relative ability to support internationally competitive facilities. In the currently tight economic environment, the effectiveness of, and outcomes from, the current investments will be closely examined, with future investments likely to factor in the potential to contribute to economically beneficial and


measurable outcomes. For this to be realised, the investments in hardware and soſt skills will need to be balanced, and implemented efficiently in order to realise economies of scale. Australia’s national high-end, integrated


facilities have evolved to become a valued collaborative research platform, with academic communities, science agencies, and industry now so dependent on these services that there is ‘no way back’. It is essential, therefore, to translate the provision of such services from the status of a ‘four-year research grant’ into the mainstream, in order to secure the skills base, the access, and the quality of services. It is these, and related matters, that are presently occupying the attention of policy makers and research institutions alike as Australia develops its blueprint for its national e-infrastructure through to 2020. l


Lindsay Botten is a Professor and Director, National Computational Infrastructure, at the Australian National University.


Neil Stringfellow is Director of the Western Australian eResearch organisation iVEC, as well as the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre.


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