The German research center Jülich in North Rhine-Westphalia will be the site of the first European computer capable of more than a trillion arithmetic operations per second. The mainframe is due to go live in 2023 and other German supercomputers with exaflop performance will follow.
The research center announced that the processing power of the mainframe in Jülich would exceed five million modern notebooks or PCs. IBM’s exascale computer called “Jupiter” should help solve scientific questions such as climate change and sustainable energy production. Cost: half a billion euros.
Two more exascale systems will follow Jupiter
“Jupiter” will be the first German supercomputer with exascale performance. According to a report by the IT portal Golem.de, Germany plans to commission two more in the coming years – one is to go online at its high-performance data center in Stuttgart, one at the Leibnitz data center in Garching near Munich.
Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger: “I am very pleased that the first exascale supercomputer in Europe is coming to Germany. The calculator helps to solve complex scientific questions and enables the analysis of huge amounts of data. This helps us, for example, with climate protection , fighting pandemics and developing artificial intelligence.”
Officially the first Exascale computer in the US
The most powerful European supercomputer is currently in Finland: the Lumi system is in third place in the global Top500 ranking of supercomputers, behind mainframes from the US and Japan. According to the list, the official first system with exascale performance is in the US, it is the Frontier mainframe of the US Department of Energy.
However, it can be assumed that there are other supercomputers with exaflops performance: not all systems are reported for the Top500 ranking. For example, secret services and the military have an interest in keeping details about their supercomputers secret. For example, China is said to already have two exascale systems in operation, but has kept them secret until now.
Source: Krone
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
