The first petaflop supercomputer of the EuroHPC JU starts operations in Slovenia and invites applications from users. Several more machines are to follow soon.
20 April 2021 saw the launch of the first petascale supercomputer jointly purchased by the European Union and Member States. The machine is called Vega and is located at the Institute of Information Science in Maribor, in Slovenia. It is the first supercomputer coming online within the European High-Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) and the largest supercomputer now operating in Slovenia. The EuroHPC JU invests in research and deployment of HPC infrastructures, technology and applications and aims at ensuring the development of a world-class HPC ecosystem in Europe, to strengthen the continent in the global race towards exascale and quantum computing capabilities.
Vega will be operating with 6.9 petaflops or 6.9 quadrillion (ten to the power of 15) calculations per second and will support Open Science, research and innovation in Slovenia and Europe. It will enable Slovene and European scientists to cooperate internationally in large projects and support the development of applications in artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance data analytics. With its abilities, the computer will also provide support to companies developing advanced products in diverse sectors such as automotive, energy and health care according to Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša. The investment for the computer amounts to a total of €17.2 million, whereof 65.8% stem from the EU from the European Regional Development Fund and the Slovenian Ministry for Education, Science, Sport, and 34.2% from the EuroHPC JU. The EuroHPC JU is now ready to accept the first applications from scientists, industrial and public sector users, who want to get access time.
Vega is only the first of an entire series of petascale machines procured under the EuroHPC JU. Four others are due to be set up in Luxemburg, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Portugal. In addition, two pre-exascale computers have been procured for Finland and Italy (see SwissCore article). The Italian supercomputer ‘LEONARDO’ will operate at the dizzying speed of 248 petaflops. The EuroHPC JU will continue under Horizon Europe as an institutionalised European Partnership with its own regulation and a generous investment from the EU of €8 billion (see SwissCore article). Switzerland is a member of the EuroHPC JU since March 2019.