HPC User Site Census: Physics Applications

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Intersect360 Research surveyed the High Performance Computing (HPC) user community to complete its eleventh Site Census study. The study is a look at their
current computer system installations, storage systems, networks, middleware, and application software supporting these computer installations.

This report provides a detailed analysis of the physics applications installed among respondents to our HPC User Site Census survey. Our
goal in this analysis is to provide an overview of the physics applications space, including the breadth of applications and those that are most commonly
used.

Our Site Census survey results can be found in many reports, including the following:

  • HPC System Configurations and Technologies
  • HPC System Vendors Installed
  • HPC Storage Configurations and Technologies
  • HPC Storage Vendors Installed
  • HPC Networking Technologies
  • HPC Processing Technologies (Including Accelerators)
  • HPC Operating System Installations
  • HPC Middleware and Tool Installations
  • HPC Application Installations (segmented into application domains):

    • Biosciences
    • Business: Business intelligence, analytics, pattern recognition, ERP, CRM, security, complex event processing, general business
    • Chemistry
    • Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
    • Engineering: Structural analysis, electronic design automation (EDA), general engineering
    • Finance and economics
    • Geophysics
    • Physics
    • Scientific research
    • Visualization and image analysis
    • Weather modeling, climate modeling, environment modeling 

Physics applications are used in a wide variety of vertical markets to model or simulate physical processes. These applications occur in various fields
of research and industry. Physics is the eighth-most cited application domain in our most recent Site Census survey analysis, with 114 (4.6%) of the
2,466 mentions. Note that two detailed sub-areas within physics, engineering and computational fluid dynamics, are analyzed in their own reports. Physics
is an area in which we found few ISV applications in our survey. ISV applications accounted for only five of the 114 survey mentions. The other 109
application mentions for physics were split nearly evenly between open-source and in-house applications.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Methodology

Total Responses

Table 1: HPC User Site Census Responses for Application Analysis

HPC APPLICATION USAGE: PHYSICS

Figure 1: HPC User Site Census Applications by Domain

Figure 2: Source of Physics Applications (Open-Source, In-House, ISV)

Table 2: Top Named Physics Applications in HPC User Site Census Survey

INTERSECT360 RESEARCH ANALYSIS