European supercomputer MareNostrum 5 starts up at BSC

The new European supercomputer MareNostrum 5, one of the most complete and versatile machines in the world at the service of the scientific community and the only one with two systems on the list of the 20 most powerful supercomputers on the planet, was inaugurated today at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS).

Thanks to its unique computational architecture, MareNostrum 5 will advance science in all areas, from the development of digital twins of the planet Earth and the human body, to the search for new treatments for diseases such as cancer, the design of healthier and more sustainable cities, or the search for new energy sources and new materials.

MareNostrum 5 represents the largest investment ever made by Europe in a scientific infrastructure in Spain with a total cost of 202 million euros, of which 151.4 million euros correspond to the acquisition of the machine, financed jointly by the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU), through the EU's Connecting Europe Facility and the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, as well as by the participating states: Spain -through the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities and the Generalitat de Catalunya-, Turkey and Portugal.

"We share the aim of making Barcelona a European scientific reference, for the benefit of Barcelona, Catalonia and the whole of Spain; because what is good for Barcelona and Catalonia is good for Spain and for Europe. The BSC is a centre of excellence in the new knowledge economy that will generate hundreds of jobs directly and thousands indirectly, and will train the professionals of today and tomorrow", stressed the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez.

"Catalonia today takes an unprecedented step forward with the MareNostrum 5, one of the major objectives of European strategic autonomy and of Catalonia's economic and social future. Today we are making available to Catalonia's knowledge ecosystem a supercomputer with 4,500 chips, each with twice the power of the first supercomputer that was launched not yet 20 years ago. A potential that will be at the service of science, but also has a clear link with the citizens and with the needs of the present and the future", said the President of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès.

Anders Dam Jensen, Executive Director of the EuroHPC JU, said: "I am delighted to see MareNostrum 5 inaugurated and ready to serve European research in the new year. This day marks another major achievement for European supercomputing, and for us at the EuroHPC JU, represents the end of our first chapter of procuring European supercomputers. All eight machines in the first generation of EuroHPC systems are now out in the world, and ready for access by European researchers to push the boundaries of scientific and technological innovation.”

"Supercomputers are instruments at the service of science and engineering, accelerators of theory that allow the development of digital twins in very diverse and essential fields for society, such as climate change or precision medicine. We are very proud of the arrival of the new MareNostrum 5, one of the most important machines in Europe and the world to advance in the great challenges of science, such as the digital twin of the Earth, which we seek to develop as part of the Destination Earth project, one of Europe's great bets to combat climate change; or human digital twins, which will serve to create more efficient drugs to treat diseases that are difficult to treat today, among others. The presentation of MareNostrum 5 paves the way for the next MareNostrum 6, which we hope will incorporate European technology, a milestone that could be a reality in 5- or 6-years’ time," said BSC director Mateo Valero.

The launch of the new MareNostrum 5 consolidates the BSC as one of the world's leading supercomputing centres, with more than 900 employees, most of whom are researchers in four scientific departments: Computer Science, Life Sciences, Earth Sciences and Computational Applications for Science and Engineering.

This article was first published on 21 December by Barcelona Supercomputing Center.