Galician Supercomputing Center in Spain Selects Atos

Atos SE has been selected by the Galician Supercomputing Center (CESGA), to design, deliver and install a new supercomputing system, named Finisterrae III, based on Atos’ BullSequana X HPC architecture, that will multiply the current capacities of the center by 12, while providing huge storage capacity.

The contract also includes a 30-qubit Atos Quantum Learning Machine (Atos QLM30), which places CESGA as a pioneer in Spain in quantum simulation.

CESGA will use the HPC for research projects in collaboration with university and industry researchers in Galicia for various strategic areas of science and technology such as nanotechnology, new materials and industrial processes, health and life sciences and ocean sciences. It will also promote the use of HPC and big data in SMEs.

It will enable users to adopt new AI, ML and deep learning techniques and use these in supercomputing. It will also promote Industry 4.0 and the Industrial Digital Innovation Hub of Galicia, bringing supercomputing techniques to public administrations and extending the use of HPC to other areas of knowledge, such as social sciences and humanities.

The basic design principle of the Finisterrae III project is to provide a convenient, open, efficient, flexible, and adaptable infrastructure for different computational paradigms. In this sense, the project will provide access to emerging technologies, especially quantum computing, thanks to the Atos QLM, which will enable technicians, developers, and users to train on the machine.

“We are proud to provide CESGA with this new supercomputing system designed with the latest technologies which is also a reliable and high-performance tool that contributes to the advancement of science and technology,” said Agnès Boudot, SVP, head of HPC and Quantum, Atos. “With this new contract Atos confirms its expertise in delivering high-performance computing solutions, opening computing new horizons to the constantly demanding needs of our customers.“

The objectives of CESGA are the universalization of Research, Development and Innovation (R&D&I), facilitating access to these resources to a greater number of entities and companies, as well as creating a link between areas of knowledge (mainstreaming); and supporting the increasing complexity of investigations.

Quantum simulation
The Atos QLM is a simulator that enables users to develop, optimize and test quantum applications. Combining a compact, high-powered machine with a universal programming language, it enables researchers and engineers to develop and experiment with quantum software and is the only quantum software development and simulation apparatus. The system simulates the laws of physics, which are at the heart of quantum computing, to calculate the exact execution of a quantum program with double-digit precision.

Technical specs:
Finisterrae III will multiply the computing capacity of the previous CESGA HPC by 12, providing a computing power of 4 petaflops through 354 computing nodes equipped with latest gen Intel Xeon Ice Lake 8352Y processors of 32 cores at 2.2GHz.

It also incorporates a total of 144 GPU accelerators: Nvidia A100 and Nvidia T4 GPU.

Together, the HPC nodes have 118TB aggregate memory and 5PB disk storage capacity based on NetApp technology.

Storage: For local storage, nodes include NVMe SSD with an aggregate capacity of 355TB and fast data I/O speed. The new system also has a 20 PB capacity permanent storage subsystem.

Interconnect: The nodes are connected by a high capacity, very low latency IB HDR100 interconnect network.

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