Europe is gearing up to unveil its inaugural exascale computer, Jupiter, set to rival the world's most powerful supercomputers. Housed at the Jülich Supercomputing Centre in Germany, Jupiter is projected to perform one exaflop, equivalent to one billion-billion calculations per second, at an estimated cost of €500 million ($545 million) over a six-year operational period.
Jupiter's primary objective is to address "the most demanding simulations and compute-intensive AI applications in science and industry," states the Jülich Supercomputing Centre. This encompasses diverse applications such as training large language models, simulating functional materials, creating digital replicas of the human heart or brain for medical purposes, validating quantum computers, and conducting high-resolution simulations of Earth's climate.
The supercomputer will utilize a liquid-cooled architecture and house 24,000 Nvidia GH200 Superchips. It is designed to support the development of AI applications, including large language model training and the creation of digital twins for healthcare and climate research. Access to Jupiter will be extended to users from academia, industries, and the public sector.
Funding for the project comes from EuroHPC JU, a collaborative initiative involving the EU, European countries, and private partners dedicated to advancing supercomputing systems in Europe. Additional financial support is provided 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).
In the pursuit of scientific and technological advancement, Europe's Jupiter stands as a significant milestone, poised to contribute to a wide array of research and development endeavors.
