23 January 2024
Construction of the first European exascale supercomputer JUPITER at Forschungszentrum Jülich is making progress. Forschungszentrum Jülich and Eviden (Atos Group) have signed a contract for the delivery of a modular data centre, marking the next milestone in the installation of the supercomputer. The modular data centre is being financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Furthermore, BMBF and the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (MKW NRW) will provide funding in equal measure for the technical equipment installed in the centre.
JUPITER is setting new standards in terms of housing and is to be delivered in a modular data centre consisting of container modules. The concept is becoming increasingly prevalent in the field of high-performance computing as an innovative alternative to traditional 'brick and mortar' datacentres, as it offers considerable advantages such as significantly shorter planning and construction times, reduced construction and operating costs, and greater flexibility.
The supercomputer procured by the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) is due to go into operation this year and will be the first supercomputer in Europe capable of performing more than one quintillion (or one billion times one billion) floating point operations per second. JUPITER is designed for simulations as well as large-scale AI applications in science and industry that require maximum computing power.
The Jülich Supercomputing Centre (JSC) is taking a completely new approach in order to build a correspondingly powerful new data centre by the time JUPITER is scheduled to go into operation in autumn 2024. The data centre will be built as a modular high-performance centre (modular data centre, MDC) consisting of around 50 container modules across an area of over 2,300 square metres - roughly half the size of a football pitch.
The advantages of the concept include significantly shorter planning and set-up times as well as reduced construction and operating costs. According to Eviden, the delivery time has been reduced by 50 % to less than a year and the costs have also been significantly reduced. In addition, there is greater flexibility when the requirements for the data centre change with new computer generations. Moreover, the power supply and cooling infrastructure can be flexibly adapted to new requirements in future thanks to the consistently modular design. Due to the reduced use of materials and better recycling options, data centres made of steel containers also offer major advantages in terms of sustainability.
Statements
"I am delighted that JUPITER's modular data centre is a solution that supports our requirements and objectives in a variety of ways. This design helps to save considerable time and costs. It is also ideally suited to integrating future technologies such as quantum computing and neuromorphic computing, which are the subject of research here at Forschungszentrum Jülich and which we are increasingly embedding in our computing infrastructure."Prof. Dr. Astrid Lambrecht, Chair of Board of Directors, Forschungszentrum Jülich
"JUPITER will be perhaps the most powerful AI supercomputer in the world! Its modular computer architecture enables a particularly high level of energy efficiency. However, its enormous computing power comes with demands on the energy supply that no scientific data centre in Germany has been able to meet so far. I am pleased that the modular data centre will now allow for such a supply infrastructure to be created very quickly, which will also offer the possibility of using the thermal energy generated during cooling to heat the Jülich campus."Prof. Dr. Dr. Thomas Lippert, Director of the Jülich Supercomputing Centre, Forschungszentrum Jülich
"This new contract, which is to the benefit of Europe's scientific and economic sovereignty as well as its competitiveness, fills us with great pride. We are extremely honoured to be part of Europe's exascale journey by leading the JUPITER manufacturing consortium and by now also delivering the data centre to host the system. These two key strategic contracts demonstrate Eviden's position as a trusted partner as well as its commitment to unique and innovative technological solutions with reduced energy consumption."Emmanuel Le Roux, SVP, Global Head of HPC, AI and Quantum, Eviden (Atos Group)
Facts
MDC: Modular Data Centre
Supplier: Eviden (Atos Group)
- Supplier: Eviden (Atos Group)
- Installation and operation: 2024
- Size: 2300 square metres
- Architecture: Modular architecture with around 50 prefabricated and interchangeable modules, including 20 IT containers, 15 energy supply containers, around 10 logistics containers with workshops, warehouses, and other units. Each IT module forms an independent unit together with an associated energy supply container
- Computing modules: IT modules, each consisting of two containers integrating 20 racks of the direct liquid-cooled BullSequana XH3000 platform, are equipped and tested ex works by Eviden
- Data module: an IT module consisting of 4 containers accommodates the storage of data for the supercomputer
Funding: construction of the data centre funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF); technical equipment funded in equal measure by BMBF and the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (MKW NRW)
- Energy efficiency: waste heat generated during cooling can be decoupled and used to heat the buildings on the Jülich campus; connection to the heating network should cover a substantial proportion of the heating requirements at Forschungszentrum Jülich in the medium term
JUPITER: Joint Undertaking Pioneer for Innovative and Transformative Exascale Research
- Owner: European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU)
- Supplier: ParTec-Eviden (Franco-German supercomputer consortium)
- Operator: Jülich Supercomputing Centre (JSC), Forschungszentrum Jülich
- Installation and operation: 2024
- Computing power: first system in Europe with a computing power of more than one exaflop per second; corresponds to one quintillion ("1" with 18 zeros) floating point operations per second or the computing power of ten million modern notebooks
- Energy requirement: average power consumption of around 11 megawatts, with a possible increase to up to 20 megawatts for particularly energy-intensive applications such as training AI language models
- Costs (procurement and operation over six years): € 500 million
- Funding: half of the funding provided by the European Union and one quarter each by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (MKW NRW)
