Head
Prof. Dr. Alexander Reinefeld
Dr. Thomas Steinke

The architecture of today's supercomputers is much more complicated than the architecture of the classical vector computers.  Modern machines have up to hundreds of thousands of processor cores, a fast communication network and parallel I/O hardware.  Using these systems efficiently requires much deeper knowledge than in the past.  At the same time scientific software is growing more and more complex.  In order to support users in managing this ever growing complexity ZIB has established supercomputing consultants with a scientific background in fields in which our users are researching.  Typical support tasks are:

• checking whether a project is suited for using the HLRN supercomputers
• clarifying software requirements
• optimising existing software to the current hardware

In addition to supporting users the consultants contribute to scientific projects.

The members of the consulting team come from the following fields:

• chemistry, bioinformatics, material science
• earth system science
• engineering science
• physics