The Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS) based in Barcelona inaugurated MareNostrum 5 on Dec. 21, one of Europe's most advanced supercomputers boasting a total performance of 314 petaflops, equivalent to the combined capacity of approximately 380,000 laptops in the mid to high segment. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez attended the unveiling of the new supercomputer.
Established in Barcelona through investments from the European Union (50%), Spain (35.13%), Türkiye (9.87%) and Portugal (5%), the new machine represents a staggering 10,000-fold increase in power compared to its initial version from two decades ago.
This computing power will cater to numerous applications and primarily create immense opportunities in the field of scientific research. It holds fundamental capabilities to expedite research using artificial intelligence and enable new scientific breakthroughs to address global issues like climate change.
The supercomputer, a part of the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, a collaborative initiative among the EU, European countries, and private partners, aims to develop the largest high-performance computing ecosystem globally within Europe.
BSC stands as a product of long-standing intensive collaboration between the Spanish Government, the Catalan Regional Government, and the Technical University of Catalonia.
The supercomputer, equipped with technology from the chosen supplier Eviden through a competitive bidding process, also encompasses technologies from Lenovo, IBM, Intel and Nvidia, with the installation overseen by the German consulting company Partec. It consists of two distinct systems: one dedicated to general-purpose, classical computing and the other an accelerated section for more ambitious computations pushing the boundaries of information. These two systems respectively rank 19th and 8th among the world's top 20 supercomputers in terms of power.
