Poland one of the five EU countries selected to host new world-class supercomputers – Cyfronet was chosen as a host
The European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) has selected five new sites across the European Union (EU) to host and operate the next generation of EuroHPC supercomputers: Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, and Poland.
JUPITER, the first European exascale supercomputer, will be hosted by the Jülich Supercomputing Centre in Germany. Exascale supercomputers are systems capable of performing more than a billion billion calculations per second and represent a significant milestone for Europe.
Already at the end of the year 2023, a mid-range system will be installed in Poland. Its computing power is planned to be several times higher than the power of the currently fastest Polish supercomputer (Athena). Academic Computer Centre CYFRONET AGH will host and operate the machine. Access for Polish researchers will be granted within the PLGrid infrastructure.
A part of a larger whole
In order to equip Europe with a world-leading supercomputing infrastructure, the EuroHPC JU has already procured seven supercomputers across Europe. Five supercomputers are now fully operational and ranked among the world’s most powerful supercomputers: LUMI in Finland, Vega in Slovenia, MeluXina in Luxembourg, Discoverer in Bulgaria, and Karolina in the Czech Republic. Another three more supercomputers are also underway: LEONARDO in Italy, Deucalion in Portugal, and MareNostrum 5 in Spain.
At this point, it is worth noting that the LUMI supercomputer is currently the fastest and most energy-efficient supercomputer in Europe and the third in the world according to the TOP500 and Green500 lists announced in June 2022. It is the result of a consortium that includes Poland, represented by the Ministry of Education and Science and ACK Cyfronet AGH. Polish scientists have already obtained pilot access to the resources of the LUMI supercomputer.
Just as the existing EuroHPC supercomputers, these new systems will be available to serve a wide range of European users, no matter where in Europe they are located, in the scientific community, as well as industry, and the public sector. They will power new applications in a wide range of areas, from designing medicines and new materials to fighting climate change; they will advance science and boost the innovation potential of enterprises while ultimately improving the citizens’ quality of life.
PLGrid - access point to world-class supercomputers
The mid-range supercomputer planned for being financed in Poland will become part of the national PLGrid infrastructure, similar to the fastest Polish supercomputer. Athena, installed in Cyfronet, achieves the theoretical computing power of 7.7 PetaFlops. That gave the machine 105th place on the June TOP500 list. Athena's computing power for AI computing is almost 240 PetaFlops, and in the ranking of the greenest supercomputers, Green500 ranks very high 9th. The range of possibilities offered to PLGrid users, developed by the PLGrid consortium, also includes access for Polish scientists to the LUMI supercomputer. In this way, the PLGrid Portal is and will be even more an access point to computers at the forefront of the world. Thanks to the unified user authentication system and the PLGrid helpdesk, researchers from research units from all over Poland use the resources such as computing power, memory, and specialist software packages.
The selection of Poland as the place of installation of one of the EuroHPC JU systems is an important distinction, confirming the national competence in the field of maintenance and operational use of supercomputers at the world level.
An official announcement on the EuroHPC JU website: https://eurohpc-ju.europa.eu/eurohpc-joint-undertaking-announces-five-sites-host-new-world-class-supercomputers-2022-06-15_en