NEWS

On Friday, Dec. 13, leadership from the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ) and partners at Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) signed an agreement to build the center’s next-generation flagship computer. Based on the HPCG benchmark the pre-exascale system, Blue Lion, will have approximately 30 times the computing power of the center’s current flagship system SuperMUC-NG. The system is financed in equal parts by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research through the Gauss Centre for Supercomputing and the Free State of Bavaria. 

“It takes a lot of work to go through the full procurement process of a new supercomputer, but it is also immensely exciting,” said Prof. Dr. Dieter Kranzlmüller, Chairman of the Board of Directors for LRZ. “It allows us to look into the future of supercomputing. The anticipation is growing about how the scientific community will use this system to accelerate their progress toward new discoveries. For us, it is not about having the fastest supercomputer, but rather providing the best-possible support for cutting-edge research.” 

The machine’s architecture was designed in such a way that the center would be able to support world-class research projects across the broadest possible user base, supporting research disciplines ranging from climate modeling to quantum physics and everything in between. LRZ aims to support researchers who need both traditional modeling and simulation as well as artificial intelligence. It also provides researchers the ability to use these methods in tandem. 

Additionally, Blue Lion will be cooled exclusively using warm water, requiring approximately 94 percent less power to operate than the same system using traditional air-cooling solutions. LRZ will use water up to 40 degrees Celsius to cool the system, then reuse that water to heat its own offices as well as neighboring institutions in Garching. 

For a full description of the system and of the announcement, read the official press release. 

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GCS is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts of the German State of Baden-Württemberg, and the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts.