Poland among five EU countries selected to host a next-generation supercomputer system. The machine to be installed in the Academic Computer Centre

Poland, already at the end of 2023, will host a mid-range supercomputer with processing power several times faster than the current Polish leader (Athena). The Academic Computer Centre CYFRONET has been selected as the host of the system; however, all scientists from Poland will be able to access the infrastructure through the PLGrid network.

Similarly to existing EuroHPC supercomputers, the new systems will be available to a wide group of users from Europe, representing various academic circles, industry, and the public sector.

Piece of the puzzle

The objective of the EuroHPC JU is to equip Europe with one of the most powerful supercomputing infrastructures in the world. To achieve this, petascale, pre-exascale, and ultimately exascale systems (will) have been launched. The following five supercomputers are currently fully operational and are counted among the most powerful supercomputers in the world: LUMI in Finland, Vega in Slovenia, MeluXina in Luxembourg, Discoverer in Bulgaria, and Karolina in the Czech Republic. Three more supercomputers are underway: LEONARDO in Italy, Deucalion in Portugal, and MareNostrum 5 in Spain.

It is worth mentioning that the LUMI supercomputer is currently the fastest and most energy-efficient supercomputer in Europe and third in the world according to the TOP500 and Green500 lists. The system was developed by a consortium that included Poland, represented by the Ministry of Education and Science and CYFRONET. Polish scientists have already received pilot access to LUMI’s resources.

The idea behind the EuroHPC JU is to facilitate research on a much larger scale and to power new solutions in a variety of areas, especially in designing medicines and new materials to fight climate change and anthropogenic processes. The anticipated effect of launching the EuroHPC JU supercomputers is the development of science and an increase of the innovative potential of the economy, and in the long run, the quality of life of all European citizens.

PLGrid – access point to world-leading machines

The mid-range supercomputer to be located in Poland will become part of the national PLGrid Infrastructure, as the currently fastest supercomputer in Poland – Athena. The machine, installed at CYFRONET, boasts a processing power of 7.7 PetaFlops, which gave Athena the 105^th place on the June TOP500 list. Athena’s computing power for AI calculations amounts to almost 240 PetaFlops, and in the ranking of the most eco-friendly supercomputers (Green500), it came 9^th. The spectrum of possibilities offered to PLGrid users, constantly broadened by the consortium, includes access to the LUMI supercomputer for Polish scientists. This makes the PLGrid Portal an even more attractive access point to high-end computers around the world. Thanks to the unified user identification system and a common PLGrid Helpdesk, researchers from all over Poland can use computing power, memory, and specialised software.

Selecting Poland to be the host and operator of one of the EuroHPC JU systems is a significant distinction, confirming our world-level competencies related to the maintenance and use of supercomputers.

Read the official press release at the EuroHPC JU website.