Arctur one of the founding partners of the FORTISSIMO project

25. 9. 2013 / Industry FORTISSIMO – Enabling European Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing sector to benefit from high-performance digital simulation and modelling

The consortium of 44 partners announced the formation of Fortissimo: a collaboration project that will enable European SMEs to be more competitive globally through the use of simulation services running on a High Performance Computing-based cloud infrastructure. The project is coordinated by the University of Edinburgh and involves partners including Manufacturing Companies, Application Developers, Domain Experts, IT Solution Providers and HPC Cloud Service Providers from 14 countries. The project is funded by the European Commission within the 7th Framework Programme.  

The Challenge The importance of advanced simulation to the competitiveness of both large and small companies is well established. However, the simulation of, for example, high-pressure gas cylinders or the moulding of plastics requires enormous computing power and specialized software tools and services. Generally, large companies find access to advanced simulation easier than SMEs, which are facing both technological hurdles and financial challenges. This means that SMEs are not able to take advantage of advanced simulation, even though it can clearly make them more competitive.  

The Goal The goal of Fortissimo is to overcome this impasse through the provision of simulation services running on a cloud infrastructure using tools in an internet-based environment. Fortissimo will make advanced simulation more easily accessible, particularly to SMEs, through the realization of a “one-stop shop”. This will make hardware, expertise, applications, visualisation and tools easily available and affordable on a pay-per-use basis. In doing this Fortissimo will create and demonstrate a sustainable commercial ecosystem.  

The Experiments Fortissimo will be driven by end-user requirements where approximately 50 business-relevant application experiments will be used to develop, test and demonstrate both the infrastructure and the “one-stop pay-per-use shop”. 20 experiments – all HPC-cloud-based – have been already defined such as the simulation of continuous and die casting, environmental control and urban planning, and aerodynamic design and optimisation. In addition Fortissimo will issue two more calls for participation in 30 experiments in the coming months: the first in November 2013 and the second in May 2104. Results from the first 20 experiments are expected in the first half of 2015.  

Impact Fortissimo will contribute to the increased competitiveness of European manufacturing industry through the innovative infrastructure that it will develop and test. It will also create commercial opportunities for European Independent Software Vendors and for service and High Performance Computing infrastructure providers, through the creation of a new market for their products and services. Fortissimo places considerable emphasis on the exploitation of opportunities at all levels of the value chain ranging from the end-user to the providers of High Performance Computing infrastructure.  

The Details Project Name:    Fortissimo – Factories of the Future Resources, Technology, Infrastructure and Services for Simulation and Modelling Start date:    July 1st 2013 End date:    June 30th 2016 Total Budget:    21.7 M€ EU Contribution:    16 M€ Contract Number:    609029 under the 7th Framework Programme No of Partners:    44 in total (13 core Partners and currently 31 Partners in Experiments) Core Partners:    University of Edinburgh, Scapos, Bull SAS, GENCI, INRIA, University of Stuttgart, CINECA, Surf SARA, XLAB, Arctur, CESGA, Gompute, and Intel No of Experiments:    about 50 in total of which 20 have been already started with the project; two open calls for participation for about 30 additional experiments to be issued Date of first call:    Early November 2013  

More information about fortissimo will be soon available at the project website or by  email.