The European High-Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) has launched a call for tender to find a vendor for the acquisition, delivery, installation, and maintenance of the Alice Recoque exascale supercomputer.
The deadline for procurement requests is October 30, 2024.
First announced last year, the new exascale system is named after Alice Recoque, a French computer scientist and AI pioneer who specialized in computing architectures and later worked on the design of the first mini computers.
The EuroHPC JU signed a hosting agreement with GENCI – the French national agency for HPC – in June 2024, that will see the system ultimately hosted and operated by the Jules Verne consortium, led by France through GENCI and supported by CEA, with the participation of the Netherlands through Surf, a cooperative association of Dutch educational and research institutions.
Alice Recoque will be located at the TGCC computing center owned by the CEA (the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission) in Bruyères-le-Châtel, southwest of Paris.
The total cost of the system is €544 million (~US$582 million), with the project having been co-funded by the EuroHPC JU, with contributions from France and the Netherlands.
The tender documents state the TGCC facility will have a total electrical capacity of 36MW for IT equipment - with a max peak of 24MW reserved for Alice Recoque. A floor space of 700 sqm will be available for the new supercomputer along with 100 sqm for the associated equipment such as storage systems, service, and network.
"The concrete surface under the raised floor supporting the high-end supercomputer will be able to bear up to 13 computing aisles of 50,000 kg each and two computing aisles of 45,000 kg each. The load on this area of the computing room should not exceed 2,800 kg per sqm," the documents state.
TGCC will provide both warm-water and chilled-water cooling loops. The CEA is adapting its facility to strengthen floor capacity and increase power and cooling capacity.
The EuroHPC JU said the target PUE of the TGCC for the Alice Recoque supercomputer is 1.1.
Launched in 2018 and headquartered in Luxembourg, EuroHPC JU is a joint initiative between the EU, 35 European countries, and private partners to develop a supercomputing ecosystem in Europe.
Its mission is to develop, deploy, extend, and maintain a secure and connected supercomputing and quantum computing ecosystem, while supporting the development of key HPC skills for European science and industry.
The deadline to submit a request to participate in this procurement process is 30 October 2024.
