University puts Europe’s fastest supercomputer into operation

In Munich, Ludwig Maximilian University has commissioned Europe’s fastest supercomputer. The supercomputer, which will be used by scientists from all over Europe, has 3 petaflops of computing power.

With its 3 petaflops, the SuperMUC is the fastest supercomputer in Europe. The machine will used by physicists, geoscientists, astronomers, mathematicians, biologists, engineers and climate researchers from more than 24 European countries, plus Israel and Turkey. In order to be allowed to use the machine, an application must be submitted to a specially established international body.

The device weighs more than 100 tons and has 147,456 cores thanks to 18,432 Intel Xeon Sandy Bridge-EP processors. The SuperMUC has 288TB onboard memory and 12PB storage space. The machine is cooled by means of a newly developed water cooling system, whereby the cooling water is used to heat the building. This would result in energy savings of no less than 40 percent.

The calculation sample is in use posed during the fiftieth anniversary of the Leibniz-Rechenzentrum, or LRZ for short, part of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences in Garching. The findings of the device will be showcased in a new studio at the LRZ.

Although the SuperMUC is the fastest in Europe, it is currently fourth in the world ranking. Last month, the world’s fastest supercomputer, the IBM Sequoia, was commissioned at the Lawrence Livermore lab.