The MareNostrum 5 supercomputer has been inaugurated in Barcelona, Spain, hosted by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center.
MareNostrum 5 has a peak performance of 314 petaflops and is set to be the greenest supercomputer in Europe, powered entirely by sustainable energy. The heat generated by the machine will be used to heat the building it is located in.
Last month, the MareNostrum 5 was placed eighth in the latest edition of the Top500 list of the world's fastest supercomputers.
In a statement, the European Commission described the machine as “one of the most innovative supercomputing systems in the world “, adding that the MareNostrum 5 has been specifically designed to help solve a number of complex scientific problems, and will be used to support research into drug and vaccine development in addition to carrying out virus spread simulations.
The Commission added that the MareNostrum 5 will also use the most advanced accelerator chips available today, although it did not provide any further information on precisely what chips the machine uses.
The supercomputer will be accessible to members of the European scientific and industry communities from March 2024. The €151 million ($166.5m) cost of acquiring and maintaining the machine was split evenly between the EU and a Spanish-led consortium which includes Portugal and Turkey.
First announced in 2019, MareNostrum 5 was originally meant to be delivered by December 2020 however, in July 2021 the public procurement process for the machine was canceled after the parties involved couldn’t agree on a vendor to supply the system.
The inauguration comes in the same week that the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) put out an expression of interest call for the hosting and operation of two new quantum computers in the European Union.
Using the budget allocated by the Commission’s Digital Europe Program (DEP), the EuroHPC JU is set to acquire at least two new quantum computers in 2024 and is looking for hosting entities to partner with.
Previous MareNostrum systems have impressed with their design. The Barcelona Supercomputing Centre opened in 2005, in the Torre Girona, a 19th century church building. The center has featured in DCD's list of best-looking data centers, and won the DCD Award for most beautiful data center in 2020.
