Germany’s equivalent to NASA is the German Aerospace Center (abbreviated DLR), headquartered in Cologne with several locations across the country. Now, DLR has inaugurated a new supercomputer, called the Computer for Advanced Research in Aerospace (CARO). The supercomputer, inaugurated just a couple of days ago, delivers 3.46 Linpack petaflops and will serve aerospace and transport research areas.
CARO is based at the DLR campus in Göttingen (which was the site of Germany’s first state-run center for aviation, dating back to 1907). It is housed in a new computing center and operated in cooperation with the University of Göttingen and the Society for Scientific Data Processing in Göttingen (GWDG). The system was made possible by an investment of €10.5 million (~$10.7 million USD).
The system, built by NEC, is powered by AMD Epyc “Rome” 7702 CPUs and networked with Nvidia HDR100 InfiniBand. Its 3.46 Linpack petaflops (5.59 theoretical peak) placed it 149th on the most recent Top500 list, but it actually debuted on the November 2021 list at 135th. Within Germany—a relatively supercomputer-dense country—CARO places 15th, with JUWELS’ booster module (44.12 Linpack petaflops) continuing its reign.
“With CARO, we have one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers for aerospace. In Göttingen, the computer is at the cradle of aerodynamics, which will also be one of the most important uses,” said Anke Kaysser-Pyzalla, chair of the DLR Executive Board (in translation). DLR says that CARO will be used to accelerate the development and introduction of new technologies for cheaper, safer and more environmentally friendly aviation, but will also support research in the transportation sector more broadly (including future space travel and next-generation trains) and even energy research.
“Research into complex scientific issues requires the most modern high-performance computers,” said Anna Christmann, Federal Government Coordinator for German Aerospace (in translation). “We expect it to make significant contributions to research into the aircraft, wind turbines and trains of the future.”
CARO also has a sister system, CARA, at DLR’s campus in Dresden. CARA, also built by NEC, is powered by first-gen AMD Epyc 7601 CPUs and delivers 1.75 Linpack petaflops, squeezing into the most recent Top500 list in 454th place. It serves the same general purposes as CARO. CARA was launched in 2020; to learn more about that system, read HPCwire‘s prior coverage at this link.
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