Today, the European Commission, the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, the Italian Ministry of Universities and Research and the CINECA Consortium inaugurated LEONARDO – the latest European supercomputer located at Bologna Technopole in Italy.
The new supercomputer is a major asset for Europe. It will help researchers and businesses develop new products and services, boost innovation and competitiveness, and address major societal challenges such as climate change, aging populations and digital transformation.
The Leonardo project is a public-private partnership between the European Commission, EuroHPC JU, CINECA and the Italian Ministry of Universities and Research. The project as a whole will cost around €200 million, with the European Commission providing €85 million. The main objective of the project is to make high performance computing (HPC) services available to researchers and companies in Europe. This will allow them to perform complex tasks that would otherwise be too costly or time-consuming.
The journey started in 2017 with 1 BILLION EUROS
The EuroHPC (JU) Joint Undertaking was created in December 2017 with a budget of €1 billion to carry out the deployment of high-end supercomputers across Europe. With this, they will be able to bridge the competitive gap between themselves and countries like China and Japan, which have already invested money in this business.
A GREAT EUROPEAN PARTNERSHIP
The EuroHPC JU is a partnership between the European Commission and 19 European countries, who will work together to ensure that Europe remains at the forefront of high performance computing. The JU will fund the development of new supercomputers and the transfer of knowledge and technology from universities and research centers to businesses.
This is a very important step to ensure that Europe remains competitive in the global economy. Supercomputers are essential for weather forecasting, drug development and automotive design. Investing in this area ensures that our businesses have access to the latest technologies and can do so globally.
Powerful fourth supercomputer
LEONARDO is a high-end supercomputer designed and built in Europe. When finished, it will be able to oil 250 petaflops (250 million billion calculations per second). Currently, LEONARDO is the fourth most powerful supercomputer in the world.
The joint investment of €120 million is funded half by the Commission and half by the Ministry of Universities and Research in Rome as well as by CINECA, a consortium made up of five other EuroHPC countries:
- Greece
- Slovenia
- Hungary
- Austria
- Slovakia
Will help high performance computing researchers
The European pre-exascale LEONARDO supercomputer is now operational. This high-end technology relies on cutting-edge components for high-performance computing and artificial intelligence to perform complex tasks. Some examples will allow researchers to discover cancer treatments and drugs, understand how the brain works, find cleaner sources of energy, improve the accuracy of climate modeling, predict natural disasters, and more. .
The LEONARDO supercomputer system is equipped with tools to focus on environmental sustainability. It can dynamically adjust its power consumption for an intelligent balance between energy saving and performance. To top it off, this machine uses a water cooling system, making it even more energy efficient than ever.
CINECA’s computing capabilities will be greatly enhanced with the addition of LEONARDO, as CINECA has also been selected to house one of the first quantum computers made in Europe.
And after?
Europe’s world-class high-performance computing and data infrastructure continues to be deployed with the installation of the petascale supercomputer Deucalion in Portugal and the third pre-exascale supercomputer MareNostrum 5 in Spain.
As a follow-up, the EuroHPC JU announced new sites for supercomputers in June 2022. One of these supercomputers will be Europe’s first exascale: JUPITER. It will be located at the Jülich Supercomputing Center in Germany.
Additionally, plans are underway for another European exascale computer in 2023, as well as the distribution of more supercomputers and quantum computers from next year.
This joint investment is a great example of how Europe is leading the way in high performance computing and will continue to play a vital role in the global economy. This is just the beginning, and with Europe’s continued attention and commitment to supercomputing, progress in this area will continue to be made.
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