In numerous areas today, research study and understanding acquisition are reliant on appropriate scientific computing infrastructure, known as high-performance computing (HPC). In North Rhine-Westphalia, the resources required for this have so far been provided centrally at 13 websites, amongst them TU Dortmund University. LiDO4 is the fourth main “Linux HPC Cluster”, for which the Center for Data Science and Simulation (DoDaS) and the IT and Library (ITMC) at TU Dortmund University together protected financing. Around 400 scientists working in STEM topics (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) at TU Dortmund University utilize this computing capability for their research, above all to mimic computations.
At the main ceremony to mark LiDO4’s launch, Ina Brandes, Minister for Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, stated: “Research and science are the feedstock of the future. In the digital age, we require calculating power to leverage this feedstock. The State of North Rhine-Westphalia is working regularly to increase the central provision of computing capability for our universities, which we urgently require in order to more establish AI and other next-generation innovations. By so doing, we are producing conditions that allow researchers to work quickly with accurate scientific information and quickly put their findings into practice. LiDO4 is among many high-performance computer systems that make our region a lot more appealing center for research and science.”
LiDO4’s computing resources, like those of its three predecessors, are likewise at the disposal of Fachhochschule Dortmund (University of Applied Sciences and Art. “In addition to the EUR4.5 million from the DFG’s ‘Major Research Instrumentation’ financing program and the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, an additional EUR900,000 has currently been bought upgrading LiDO4,” said Professor Manfred Bayer, President of TU Dortmund University. “These upgrades support the Research study Centers of the University Alliance Ruhr, where we bundle our top-class international research in collaboration with Ruhr University Bochum and the University of Duisburg-Essen.”