Jülich / Luxembourg, 14 December 2022 – A hosting agreement has been signed between the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) and the Jülich Supercomputing Centre (JSC) where JUPITER, the first European exascale supercomputer will be located (see earlier JUPITER coverage).
JUPITER has been designed to support the development of high-precision models of complex systems and help solve key societal questions regarding, for example, climate change, pandemics and sustainable energy production, while also enabling the intensive use of artificial intelligence and the analysis of large data volumes.
JUPITER will be installed as of 2023 on the campus of Forschungszentrum Jülich in Jülich, Germany and will be operated by the JSC.
This new EuroHPC supercomputer will be co-funded with a maximum total budget of EUR 500 million by the EuroHPC JU and Germany. Of this total, 250 million euros is being provided by EuroHPC JU and a further 250 million euros in equal parts by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (MKW NRW).
JUPITER 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. Access to the computing resources of the new machine will be jointly managed by the EuroHPC JU and Germany in proportion to their investments.
JUPITER will be based on a modular supercomputing architecture, which Forschungszentrum Jülich has developed together with European and international partners in the DEEP projects funded by the European Commission and EuroHPC JU. The modular architecture will enable an optimised utilisation of the various computing modules during complex simulations. Such architecture also means that the system will be well prepared for integrating future technologies such as quantum computing.
Like other EuroHPC supercomputers, JUPITER will be designed with sustainability and eco-conscious supercomputing in mind. It will be powered by green electricity while its water cooling system has been designed for JUPITER to achieves efficiencies. Applications from JUPITER’S waste heat are being investigated by Forschungszentrum Jülich.
The hosting agreement is a contractual document that defines the roles, rights and obligations of each party. The procurement process for this new supercomputer will be managed by EuroHPC JU and will begin soon.
In June 2022, the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking announced the selection of new sites to host new world-class supercomputers. These hosting entities have been selected as a result of two calls for expression of interest launched in December 2021.
The EuroHPC JU is a legal and funding entity, created in 2018 and 2021 reviewed by means of Council Regulation (EU) 2021/1173, with the mission to:
- develop, deploy, extend and maintain in the EU a world-leading federated, secure and hyper-connected supercomputing, quantum computing, service and data infrastructure ecosystem;
- support the development and uptake of demand-oriented and user-driven innovative and competitive supercomputing system based on a supply chain that will ensure components, technologies and knowledge limiting the risk of disruptions and the development of a wide range of applications optimised for these systems;
- widen the use of that supercomputing infrastructure to a large number of public and private users and support the development of key HPC skills for European science and industry.
In order to equip Europe with a world-leading supercomputing infrastructure, the EuroHPC JU has already procured eight supercomputers, located across Europe. Five supercomputers are now operational: LUMI in Finland, LEONARDO in Italy, Vega in Slovenia, MeluXina in Luxembourg, Discoverer in Bulgaria and Karolina in the Czech Republic. Two more supercomputers are also underway: MareNostrum5 in Spain and Deucalion in Portugal.
