In today’s complex business environment with unpredictable competitive challenges, powerful supercomputers enable cutting-edge, secure technology. They provide the needed environment to develop scientific capability, predictive modelling and value-add for new competitive markets. High Performance Computing (HPC) capacity can boost productivity, enhance the economy and even improve life for the general population.
The United States and China are the two big masters of the game in the supercomputer area: of the top 10 supercomputers in the world, five are based in the United States and two in China. And Europe? Clearly, the European HPC technology supply chain is still weak and the integration of European technologies into operational HPC machines remains insignificant. However, the needs expressed by scientists and industrials are growing exponentially, both in volume and in complexity. The computational power required is therefore also rising sharply and, in the absence of sufficient infrastructure, European scientists and industrials have to turn to data processing outside the EU.
In March 2017, at the initiative of Luxembourg, the European Commission finally launched the EuroHPC declaration to build and deploy a world-class High Performance Computing infrastructure that would rank among the world’s top three.
Europe must quickly catch up with the United States, China and even Japan. It is a strategic issue of the utmost importance.
In January 2018 EuroHPC, the legal and financial structure allowing the coordination of this massive project, was created, coordinated by Jean-Marie Spaus (Ministry of the Economy).
EuroHPC, headquartered in Luxembourg, will support the acquisition and interconnection of world-class supercomputers, including two systems capable of a hundred million billion (or 1,017) calculations per second and at least two petascale systems capable of a million billion (or 1,015) calculations per second to be among the top 25 in the world ranking.
“Today in Luxembourg, it is a new page in the history of Europe that is written,” said Mariya Gabriel, the European Commissioner in charge of the economy and the digital society, during the first meeting of the EuroHPC board held in Luxembourg in early November 2018.
“Europe must quickly catch up with the United States, China and even Japan. It is a strategic issue of the utmost importance,” added Mario Grotz, Director General for Research, Intellectual Property and New Technologies at the Luxembourg Ministry of the Economy.