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Missions and objectives of IDRIS
IDRIS (Institut du Développement et des Ressources en Informatique Scientifique = Institute for Development and Resources in Scientific Computing), founded in November 1993, is the national computing centre of the CNRS. Dedicated to high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) through deep learning, it serves scientific communities that rely on extreme computing and conduct public or private research (subject to open research with publication of results).
As both a computing resource centre and a hub of expertise in HPC and AI, IDRIS (www.idris.fr) is a Unité d'Appui et de Recherche of the CNRS (UAR 851, Research and Support Unit) under the Direction des Données Ouvertes de la Recherche (DDOR, Office of Open Research Data) of the CNRS and administratively attached to the CNRS Sciences informatiques (Computer Science) Institute, formerly INS2I. It is a multidisciplinary unit within the CNRS itself. The operating procedures of IDRIS are similar to those of the IR* (Infrastructures de Recherche “étoile”, “star” Research Infrastructures) of the Ministère de l'Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche (MESR, Ministry of Higher Education and Research).
The current director is Pierre-François Lavallée.
The main objective assigned to IDRIS is to contribute as effectively as possible to the excellence of scientific research in the fields of modelling, HPC and AI. To this end, IDRIS operates at two levels:
- As a service structure, by setting up and operating a state-of-the-art, diverse, versatile, evolving and high-performance computing environment adapted to major scientific challenges in the fields of numerical simulation and AI. This environment includes a high-performance user support interface that offers high value-added services. Thus, IDRIS is not limited to advice and training but is also involved in the development and optimisation of scientific codes.
- As a technology transfer agent, from research and development in computing to national high-performance computing infrastructures. Located at the intersection of science (numerical simulation) and technology (scientific computing) and very close to scientific users, IDRIS is in a privileged position for the gradual integration of new technologies into the national scientific research system. This activity resulted, in the 1990s, in a significant contribution to the dissemination of parallel computing. IDRIS continues these actions today to promote the transition to massive parallelism associated with the use of hardware accelerators, particularly GPUs. These developments represent major challenges for the coming years in the fields of HPC and AI.
Moreover, IDRIS has acquired recognised expertise at the European level and is currently involved in the MINERVA and AI Factory France projects.