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| National Laboratory for High Performance Computing (Chile) | |
|---|---|
| Name | National Laboratory for High Performance Computing (Chile) |
| Native name | Laboratorio Nacional de Computación de Alto Rendimiento |
| Established | 2002 |
| Location | Ñuñoa, Santiago, Chile |
| Type | National research infrastructure |
| Parent institution | Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María |
National Laboratory for High Performance Computing (Chile) The National Laboratory for High Performance Computing (Chile) is a Chilean research infrastructure center focused on supercomputing, scientific computing, and computational research. Founded to provide national-scale resources, it supports academic institutions, industry projects, and public research across Chile and collaborates with international centers to advance capabilities in simulation, data analysis, and modeling.
The laboratory traces its origins to initiatives at Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica (CONICYT), Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Universidad de Chile, and RedCLARA in the early 2000s. Early procurement efforts involved partnerships with HP, IBM, Dell Technologies, and NVIDIA during the 2002–2010 period while Chilean policy actors such as Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología, Conocimiento e Innovación (Chile) and Gobierno de Chile supported capacity building. The laboratory's growth paralleled regional developments involving Réseau Québécois de Calcul de Haute Performance, Latin American and Caribbean Scientific Computing Network, and collaborations with European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts and National Center for Supercomputing Applications. Major upgrades aligned with initiatives from Fondo de Fomento al Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico (FONDEF), Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica, and investments by CORFO and private donors. Significant milestones include deployment phases that referenced standards from TOP500 lists and benchmarking efforts with systems from Cray Inc., Lenovo, and Huawei. The laboratory's timeline includes cooperative projects with Centro de Modelamiento Matemático (CMM) and links to infrastructure programs at Universidad de Concepción, Universidad Austral de Chile, and Universidad Católica del Norte.
The laboratory's mission aligns with strategic research priorities of Ministerio de Educación (Chile), Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica (CONICYT), and regional agendas set by Mercado Integrado Latinoamericano stakeholders. Objectives emphasize providing capacity for projects in climate modeling with Centro de Ciencia del Clima y la Resiliencia (CR)2, geosciences with Servicio Nacional de Geología y Minería (SERNAGEOMIN), astronomy with European Southern Observatory, and genomics with Instituto de Investigaciones Agropecuarias (INIA). The laboratory seeks to facilitate high-throughput workflows for users from Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Universidad de Valparaíso, Universidad de Antofagasta, and private firms such as Codelco and SQM. It aims to support national priorities related to environmental monitoring with Dirección Meteorológica de Chile and public health modeling aligned with Instituto de Salud Pública de Chile.
Core facilities include HPC clusters, storage arrays, and networking nodes co-located with academic campuses like Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María and data centers connected to RedCLARA and Redes de Investigación y Educación Latinoamericanas. Hardware generations have included architectures from NVIDIA GPU accelerators, Intel CPU nodes, and interconnects from Mellanox Technologies and InfiniBand. Facilities host specialized resources for workflows in computational chemistry using packages popular at Argonne National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; climate modeling stacks tied to ECMWF and NOAA; and bioinformatics pipelines used in projects connected to Wellcome Sanger Institute and Broad Institute. The laboratory's network infrastructure interoperates with international exchanges such as Internet2 and GÉANT. On-site data management follows best practices influenced by FAIR principles and storage solutions akin to those at TACC and PDC Center for High Performance Computing.
Research applications span climate and weather modeling with teams collaborating with CR2, NOAA, and ECMWF; computational seismology linked to SERNAGEOMIN and USGS; remote sensing projects with European Space Agency, NASA, and CONAE; and astronomy work supporting instruments at Observatorio Interamericano Cerro Tololo and Paranal Observatory. Applied research includes materials modeling with inputs from Codelco and collaborations with Fraunhofer Society, computational genomics partnering with Wellcome Sanger Institute and Instituto de Salud Pública de Chile, and machine learning projects using frameworks from Google DeepMind and OpenAI. The laboratory supports large-scale simulations used in hydrology with Comisión Nacional del Medio Ambiente (CONAMA) initiatives and mining optimization studies involving Antofagasta plc. Benchmarking and code optimization projects draw on expertise from Argonne Leadership Computing Facility and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Training programs are offered in collaboration with universities such as Universidad de Chile, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, and Universidad de Concepción, and through networks including RedCLARA and ICTP workshops. Courses address parallel programming with MPI and OpenMP following curricula similar to PRACE and XSEDE tutorials, and summer schools have involved speakers from CERN and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Outreach activities include user support portals modeled after EPCC practices and hackathons co-organized with Startup Chile and industry partners like Microsoft and Amazon Web Services.
The laboratory maintains partnerships with national universities including Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Universidad de Chile, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, and international institutions such as European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, NOAA, NASA, CERN, PRACE, and XSEDE. Industry collaborations include NVIDIA, Intel, IBM, HP, Lenovo, Cray Inc., and cloud providers Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform. Regional cooperation involves RedCLARA, Latin American and Caribbean Scientific Computing Network, and bilateral projects with Universidad de Buenos Aires, Universidade de São Paulo, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, and Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso.
Governance structures have involved stakeholders from Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología, Conocimiento e Innovación (Chile), CONICYT, and advisory boards with representatives linked to CORFO and academic councils at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Funding sources combine public funds via agencies like FONDECYT and FONDEF, institutional contributions from universities, and contracts or donations from corporations such as NVIDIA and IBM. Project-based grants have been coordinated with international funders including European Commission frameworks and collaborative support from World Bank and regional development banks.
Category:Research institutes in Chile