CSC Signs Hosting Agreement with EuroHPC

Nov. 26, 2019 — European High-Performance Computing Joint Undertaking, EuroHPC JU, and CSC – IT Center for Science Ltd. signed a Hosting Agreement about hosting one of the three pre-exascale supercomputers in CSC’s datacenter in Kajaani, Finland.

CSC’s Managing Director Kimmo Koski, European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society Mariya Gabriel, European Commission’s DG Connect Director Thomas Skordas, EuroHPC JU’s Interim Executive Director Gustav Kalbe, hosting entity representatives, ambassadors and other representatives gathered in Strasbourg’s signing ceremony 26th November 2019. Image courtesy of CSC.

EuroHPC JU is pooling European resources to develop top-of-the-range exascale supercomputers for processing big data, based on competitive European technology with the support of European Union. The first aim of EuroHPC is to purchase three pre-exascale supercomputers for Europe by the year 2021.

In June 2019, EuroHPC JU decided to place one of the pre-exascale supercomputers to CSC’s datacenter in Kajaani, Finland. The agreement signed today seals the hosting one of the EuroHPC’s pre-exascale supercomputers, called LUMI, in CSC’s datacenter, in collaboration with the LUMI consortium. The countries involved in the LUMI (Large Unified Modern Infrastructure) consortium are Finland, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Norway, Poland, Sweden and Switzerland.

“The LUMI consortium is a unique European collaboration in which nine countries are investing to a common system. The world-class expertise of the LUMI consortium added to CSC’s comprehensive service concept and environmentally sustainable datacenter in Kajaani, Finland are the cornerstones of the consortium. We are especially proud about the confidence these countries have shown for CSC by joining the forces with us and we will do everything to be worth of this trust,” says CSC’s Managing Director Kimmo Koski.

LUMI consortium countries and EuroHPC JU -countries. Image courtesy of CSC.

World-class computing and data infrastructure for researchers

LUMI will be one of the world’s best known scientific computing instruments for the lifespan of 2021–2026.

The supercomputing and data infrastructure at CSC’s datacenter in Kajaani will help position Europe as one of the world leaders in supercomputing, enabling European researchers to access world-class computing resources. Computing power is required in leading-edge research in a wide range of disciplines, such as climate, pharmaceutical and cancer research as well as artificial intelligence.

The state-of-the-art computing resources will also lay grounds to carry out research in areas, which have previously been out of reach, and increases the possibilities for scientific breakthroughs with immense societal impact, such as understanding climate change. The new data management and HPC infrastructure will lay grounds for innovation and new data-based business opportunities in areas such as platform economy and the development of artificial intelligence.

LUMI will start its operations in the beginning of 2021.

About CSC

CSC is a non-profit state enterprise with special tasks. As part of the national research system, we develop, integrate and provide high-quality information technology services and ensure that Finland remains at the forefront of development.

Source: CSC