Predict the effects of climate change, design new drugs or develop control systems. artificial intelligence (AI) cutting edge technology. A. supercomputer this is a computer It has the capacity to perform such operations that are much more complex than ordinary devices can do. This is its mission barcelona Supercomputing Center – National Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS) made its brand new launch this Thursday MareNostrum 5the most advanced version.
“This is a technological genius,” he celebrated. Pedro Sánchez. “This will allow Catalonia and Barcelona to become the science capital of Europe, and that is a good thing for Spain.” The head of the Spanish Government, accompanied by the ‘president’ of the Generalitat, visited the BSC facilities, Pere Aragones, called upon to find solutions to common problems. The Spanish Minister of Science and Innovation also attended the visit. Diana MorantMayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboniand the Catalan ‘advisor’ of Research and Universities, Joaquim Nadal.
In June 2019, BSC presented its project to guarantee the country’s strategic autonomy. European Union (EU) in technological matters. MareNostrum 5 was supposed to be released at the end of 2020, but the outbreak of the covid epidemic delayed everything. The most powerful exascale processor on the market after three years Spain He started walking.
technological power
MareNostrum 5 is the latest generation of the saga. supercomputers It has been introduced in the Catalan capital since 2004. If its previous version, MareNostrum 4, could perform 14,000 billion calculations per second, the maximum capacity of its new device increases to 314,000 billion calculations per second. The BSC machine calculates in one hour the work that a mid-to-high-end laptop would take 46 years to complete. “It has scientific and technology transfer power that makes it unique in Europe,” he explained. Mateo ValeroAdministrator and supporter of BSC-CNS.
The total cost of the project will be 202 million euros, including the purchase and installation of MareNostrum 5 and the subsequent five years of operation. Spain Leading the consortium that will contribute 50% of the investment together with Portugal and Türkiye investment. The other half will be financed european funds between EU. This makes MareNostrum 5 the largest European investment in scientific infrastructure in Spain.
scientific thrust
This technological leap makes this supercomputer one of the most powerful computers in the world; investigation “seeking answers to the big questions” science“.
MareNostrum 5′digital twins‘ Virtual replicas of the Earth and the human body to simulate hypothetical future scenarios in all their complexity. This will make it possible to foresee future difficulties. global warming and understand us better Biology And genetic to progress medicine Finding solutions to diseases such as cancer or Alzheimer’s is “perhaps the biggest challenge we face worldwide,” according to Valero.
This method, which requires increasingly more power, has already been implemented in Barcelona with the aim of improving urban decision-making.
BSC also thinks its creation will serve to streamline design and manufacturing. semiconductors Europeans’ strategic priority Brussels. “Europe cannot lose this opportunity because it is perhaps the only country that has achieved technological sovereignty,” Valero warned. “We are at the beginning of a revolution,” said Roberto Viola, General Manager of the Directorate General of Communications, Network, Content and Technology. European CommissionCelebrating the reduction of distances with the USA and China supercomputer.
MareNostrum 5 will also help develop the production of new energies such as: nuclear fusion and optimizing aviation aerodynamics. The leap in computing power of this supercomputer will allow it to process and store hundreds of billions of data. dataThus, we open the door to development. neural networks It is more complex than those that became popular with its emergence. ChatGPT.
Unique infrastructure
MareNostrum 5 is divided into two different systems: one computing another that aims to “expand the boundaries of knowledge” of the classical and increasingly widespread artificial intelligence. The first part is the world’s largest partition based on x86 computing architecture, the second is the third most powerful partition in Europe and the eighth most powerful in the world.
In the coming months, MareNostrum 5 will also integrate two quantum computers, the first in operation south of the old continent. These will be located in Torre Girona, a 19th-century neoclassical chapel that is home to MareNostrum 4.
This two-headed architecture, which is “ideal” according to Valero, makes BSC the only supercomputing center on the continent to feature twice in the list of the 20 most powerful on the planet. The up to eight server columns that make up this new supercomputer cover an area of up to 800 m2, the equivalent of three tennis courts.
BSC is a public consortium resulting from institutional cooperation between the Government of Spain, the Generalitat of Catalonia and the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. More than 1,000 people are working at this advanced technology center and in the development of a supercomputer that will represent a huge leap forward in scientific research.