Europe has reached a new milestone in the field of supercomputing with the recent inauguration of MareNostrum 5. This pre-exascale supercomputer, based on the Bull Sequana XH3000 solution from Atos and Lenovo ThinkSystem architectures, ranks eighth on the Top500 list of the world’s most powerful supercomputers. With a capacity of 314 Petaflops, or 314 million billion calculations per second, MareNostrum 5 is hosted and operated by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC).
MareNostrum 5: A Green and Powerful Giant
In addition to its impressive computing capacity, MareNostrum 5 stands out as Europe’s most eco-friendly supercomputer and the sixth worldwide, according to the Green500 list. Using state-of-the-art and energy-efficient HPC technologies, this system will be fully powered by sustainable energy and cooled by water. Additionally, the generated heat will be utilized to warm the building where it is located.
Innovative Architecture and Focus on Medical Research
MareNostrum 5 is distinguished by its unique architecture, combining a powerful general-purpose partition, operating without accelerators and dedicated to classical computing, with an accelerated partition designed to push the boundaries of knowledge in artificial intelligence. This design particularly focuses on advancing European medical research, strengthening research in drug and vaccine development, virus spread simulations, artificial intelligence, and big data processing applications.
Impact on European Research and Industry
As one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world, MareNostrum 5 provides an ideal environment for cutting-edge research and is poised to propel European research and industry forward. Anders Dam Jensen, Executive Director of EuroHPC JU, expressed enthusiasm for the inauguration of MareNostrum 5, highlighting this day as a significant achievement for European supercomputing and the end of the first chapter of European supercomputer acquisition.
A European Project with Vision for the Future
MareNostrum 5 is owned by the EuroHPC joint undertaking and operated by a consortium led by Spain, which also includes Portugal and Turkey. With a total budget of approximately 151 million euros, co-financed by EuroHPC JU and the MareNostrum 5 consortium, the supercomputer will be available to European scientists and users from the public sector and industry starting next year.
EuroHPC JU: Advancing Toward Leadership in Supercomputing and Quantum Computing
The EuroHPC joint undertaking, established in 2018, aims to develop, deploy, expand, and maintain a federated and secure supercomputing and quantum computing infrastructure ecosystem in the EU. In addition to MareNostrum 5, EuroHPC JU has acquired eight other supercomputers located across Europe, with three of them ranking among the world’s top 10 supercomputers: LUMI in Finland, Leonardo in Italy, and MareNostrum 5 in Spain.
A Quantum Future on the Horizon
In parallel with the development of supercomputing, EuroHPC JU is working on creating a leading European infrastructure in quantum computing. In June 2023, EuroHPC JU signed hosting agreements with six sites across Europe to host and operate EuroHPC quantum computers, with BSC in Spain being one of these hosting entities.
This advancement reinforces Europe’s position as a global leader in supercomputing and opens promising pathways for innovation and scientific and technological progress.