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© The HOISe-NM Consortium 1997

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HPCN Technology Transfer Nodes in France

Rennes, 18-04-1997 Under the European HPCN Program, two Technology Transfer Nodes (TTN) are promoting the use of High Performance Computing and Networking technologies in France :ProHPC and HiperTTN. ProHPC is managed by a consortium of four partners particularly active in France in the domain of HPC technologies : ENS Lyon (coordinator), INRIA, Matra Cap Systemes and Simulog. HiperTTN has been set up by five institutions: CERFACS (France), FEUP (Portugal), LABEIN (Spain), NTUA (Greece) and UPV (Spain) which have worked together since 1992. Both come under the umbrella of the METIER2 Network, coordinated by a French company: ARTTIC.

The ProHPC TTN

The ProHPC TTN is managed by a consortium of four partners particularly active in France in the domain of HPC technologies : ENS Lyon (coordinator), INRIA, Matra Cap Systemes and Simulog. ENS Lyon has a research laboratory focusing on various topics related to HPC; for over ten years ,several teams at INRIA have carried out research and development activities in various areas of HPCN; Matra Cap Systemes is one of the leading companies in Europe in the domain of embedded systems and real time applications; Simulog is a software house specialising in modelling, simulation and optimisation.

The main objective of the ProHPC TTN is to increase both the use of HPCN technologies and relevant know-how for enhancing industrial competitiveness, particularly towards the many SMEs and industrial French companies who have already little access to such technologies. With four partners covering several regions, this TTN has regional actions linked at a national level.

The individual activities selected in complementary domain cover a large spectrum of technologies and needs. The first activities will be :

  • PHPC-ACRA: An awareness campaign and assessments of Rhone-Alpes region SMEs. The main objective is to increase in the Rhone-Alpes region SMEs awareness of the benefits of using HPCN technologies and relevant know-how.
  • PHPC-ANIC: Stand-alone assessment on active noise industrial control. This activity aims at designing and implementing parallel software for real time periodic noise cancellation in all enclosures such as aircrafts, cars, cabins, air conditioning systems and propulsion systems inside factories. The goal is to allow the development of a new generation of products requiring a multi-processing system implementation for better efficiency in real-time noise and vibrations reduction.
  • PHPC-DRILL: Stand-alone assessment for drilling tools simulation. A dedicated software mechanical software which simulates rock cutting has been developed, as well as a specific version for the hydraulic part already parallelised. The aim is to give an HPCN assessment of the mechanical code, to evaluate an extension of the softwares and the impact on the coupling strategy of mechanics and hydraulic codes.
  • PHPC-FINAN: Stand-alone assessment for financial prevision. This project aims at introducing HPCN technologies into Insurance Companies which have a large activity in risk analysis and in insurance pricing. Two demonstrations will be done.
  • PHPC-MBASE: Best practice on medical image database server for hospitals. The goal of this activity is to build a Medical Image Server facilitating the communication and management of images and documents in hospital environment by using a parallel computer server.

Contacts:

  • Michel.Cosnard@ens-lyon.fr, 33/(0)4 72.72.80.37
  • Thierry.Priol@irisa.fr, 33/(0)2 99.84.72.10
  • Thierry.Bidot@simulog.fr, 33/(0)1 30.12.27.66
  • Theron@matra-ms2i.fr, 33/(0)1 34.63.72.43

HiperTTN

LABEIN (Bilbao,Spain), CERFACS (Toulouse, France), NTUA (National Technical University of Athens, Greece), UPV (Universidad Politectica de Valencia, Spain) and FEUP (Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto, Portugal) have been selected, in July 96, to become Technology Transfer Nodes (TTN) in the METIER program initiated by the European Commission.

At the same time as they submitted their individual candidatures, they proposed to form a consortium named HiperTTN.

Both proposals have been accepted by the European Commission which is why there is, in the list of the Technology Transfer Nodes in the METIER Network, one called HiperTTN made up of five TTNodes (LABEIN, CERFACS, NTUA, UPV and FEUP).

Cooperation between these five institutions started earlier, vack in 1992. The RECITE program, organised within the framework of the Regional Policy Directorate (DG 16), was proposing support to the Regional governments wanting to set up cooperative Inter-Regional networks.

Since 1992, the Regional governments from which the members of Hiper TTN come were aware of the importance of HPCN. Some of them were already granting these institutions and all of them invested in the telematic network installation. To profit from RECITE program, they appointed CERFACS, LABEIN, NTUA and UPV to set up an Inter-Regional network with a view to proposing their HPCN competence to local SMES.

Many things have been done during this early, pre-METIER period. Firstly of all, joint projects have been set up with local SMES to develop adapted products; secondly , the partners have acquired a good experience in how to work together for their SMES ; and, thirdly, they have established strong links with their regional industrial sector associations, which helped them meet SMES and/or to organize discuss with them during specially-organized workshops.

It has to be noted that the products they developed were supposed to be installed both in their respective local SMES and in the other Regions. One of such project has been approved by DG3 and is called HIPERCOSME.

Today the RECITE network is pursuing its activities within the framework of the METIER program under the HiperTTN name. This gaves it the opportunity to widen its relationship with similar institutions and to propose its competence and experience to facilitate technology transfer, the exchange of experience and dissemination of results.

Its technical offer is presently focused on :

  • automatic surface inspection,
  • multi-body design,
  • construction Engineering,
  • faults diagnosis of turbine,
  • tolerance analysis of assembly chain,
  • electromagnetism.

Person to contact :

Jean-Loic Delhaye