PRACE completes first phase of Pre-Commercial Procurement

The process is highly competitive, and during Phase I the companies Bull, E4, Maxeler and Megware explored the various possible solutions. All of them have now been invited to bid for Phase II during which prototypes for the three most promising solutions will be built. This phase is expected to start in May 2015.

PRACE started the process for a pre-commercial procurement on Whole-System Design for Energy Efficient HPC in 2012 with a workshop on the usage of Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) in HPC.

This Pre-Commercial Procurement, the first one in the field of HPC in Europe, is a multi-country and multi-partner joint effort, implemented by a consortium composed of several partners of PRACE, CINECA, Italy as Procuring Entity with CSC, Finland; EPCC, UK; JSC, Germany; and GENCI, France. PRACE aisbl is involved as an advisory body in this Pre-Commercial Procurement pilot executed in the context of PRACE's 3rd Implementation Project (PRACE-3IP) supported by the European Commission.