Europe’s First Exascale Supercomputer Goes Live with Nvidia GH200 Power
▼ Summary
– JUPITER, Europe’s fastest supercomputer, is now operational at the Forschungszentrum Jülich campus in Germany.
– It consists of a Booster module with 24,000 Nvidia GH200 Superchips and a Cluster module with over 1,300 nodes using SiPearl Rhea1 processors.
– The system is capable of over 90 exaflops of AI performance and 1 quintillion FP64 operations per second, ranking it the fourth fastest globally.
– It features 51,000 network connections and nearly 1 exabyte of storage, enabling massive data transmission and storage capabilities.
– JUPITER will be used for research in climate science, generative AI, neuroscience, quantum simulation, and other scientific fields.
Europe has officially entered the exascale computing era with the activation of the JUPITER supercomputer, a monumental achievement powered by Nvidia GH200 Grace Hopper Superchips. Located at the Forschungszentrum Jülich campus in Germany, this system represents a significant leap forward for scientific and industrial research across the continent.
JUPITER’s architecture spans 2,300 square meters and consists of 50 container modules. Its Booster module alone integrates approximately 6,000 nodes, featuring over 24,000 Nvidia GH200 Superchips interconnected via Nvidia’s Quantum-2 InfiniBand networking technology. Each node is equipped with 288 Arm-based CPU cores, delivering immense parallel processing capabilities.
Complementing the Booster is the Cluster module, which incorporates more than 1,300 nodes built around SiPearl’s Rhea1 processors. These chips, also based on the Arm instruction set, include 80 Neoverse Zeus cores per processor, with two chips per node. This design ensures robust performance for a diverse array of computational tasks.
When operating at full capacity, JUPITER is projected to achieve more than 90 exaflops of AI performance and sustain one quintillion FP64 operations per second. These metrics position it as the fourth most powerful supercomputer globally. Its networking infrastructure supports 51,000 simultaneous connections, enabling data transmission rates three times greater than the entire globe’s internet traffic at any given moment.
Storage is another area where JUPITER excels, boasting nearly one exabyte of capacity, equivalent to one million terabytes. While such space could theoretically accommodate countless video games, the system is dedicated to far more critical applications.
Research priorities for JUPITER include climate modeling, generative AI, neuroscience, brain mapping, and quantum simulation. The Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, for instance, will use the supercomputer to run highly detailed climate predictions and simulate extreme weather phenomena. Such efforts could provide unprecedented insights into environmental changes and mitigation strategies.
Beyond climate science, JUPITER will support groundbreaking studies in virology, particle physics, and medical imaging. Researchers plan to simulate protein interactions to aid in HIV research, investigate new particle behaviors, and develop advanced video compression models for applications ranging from autonomous vehicles to diagnostic imaging.
By enabling such transformative work, JUPITER stands as a testament to international collaboration and technological ambition. Its deployment marks a new chapter in high-performance computing, with the potential to drive innovation across numerous scientific disciplines.
(Source: PC Gamer)
