HPC User Site Census: Scientific Research 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 scientific research applications named in the Site Census survey. Our
goal in this analysis is to provide an overview of the scientific research 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 

Scientific research is a broad category that incorporates any scientific application that does not get recorded in one of the named domains in the Site
Census survey. These applications occur in various fields of research. Note that areas such as chemistry, biosciences, and physics are analyzed in
their own reports.

Scientific research is the ninth-most cited application domain in our most recent Site Census survey analysis, with 106 (4.3%) of the 2,466 mentions. Scientific
research is an area in which we found few ISV applications in our survey. Overall, in-house applications represented 76% of mentions. This is the highest
proportion of in-house application development reported in any application category.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Methodology

Total Responses

Table 1: HPC User Site Census Responses for Application Analysis

HPC APPLICATION USAGE: SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH APPLICATIONS

Figure 1: HPC User Site Census Applications by Domain

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

Figure 3: Source of Scientific Research Applications, by Sector

Table 2: List of Reported Scientific Research Applications, Excluding In-House

INTERSECT360 RESEARCH ANALYSIS