If Atos is experiencing serious difficulties, the situation is different for its subsidiary Eviden, positioned in digital, cloud, big data and security – all growing sectors. Selected in October 2023 as leader of the consortium responsible for manufacturing the Jupiter system, the Frenchman secures delivery of the future cradle of the supercomputer.
On behalf of the German research center Jülich, Eviden was selected for the construction of the modular data center for the future EuroHPC JUPITER supercomputer. Behind this name hides Europe’s first exascale supercomputer.
Two exascale supercomputers by 2025
Backed by €500 million in EU funding, Jupiter will be the first to offer such computing power. Its commissioning is planned for 2024. Once operational, the supercomputer will be accessible to a wide range of European users from the end of the year.
Eviden’s mission is therefore to provide the enclosure and equipment necessary for Jupiter. The contract won by the French takes the form of a data center, a data center presented as modular.
Modular because the infrastructure hosting Jupiter will consist of a set of around 50 pre-built and interchangeable modules. Among these, 20 IT containers, 15 power supply containers and 10 logistics containers (hall, workshop, warehouse, etc.).
The whole, spread over 2,300m², will compose what Eviden describes as “a complete, turnkey data center.” The modularity of the data center aims to guarantee the owner of Jupiter “more flexibility and agility in the long term.”
A modular data center to reduce costs and footprint
This will in principle make it easier to carry out updates or replacements of individual modules, independently of the rest of the system. Data centers are scalable structures. In theory at least.
“Tearing down an outdated system and upgrading the data center to support new technologies can take weeks or months and result in lengthy downtime,” notes Eviden.
Modularity facilitates system scalability. “The same goes for the power subsystem and the logistics area,” specifies the French supplier. The gains of this architecture also lie in terms of costs and delivery time.
Eviden claims “costs divided by 3 and delivery time reduced by 50%.” The components of the data center will be partly stamped made in France. The supercomputer calculation racks will thus be produced in the Eviden factory in Angers.
Jules Verne, the French exascale supercomputer in 2025
Due to climate issues, power is no longer the only parameter for evaluating a high-performance computing system. In terms of eco-efficiency, Eviden also highlights the advantages of modularity.
The “design of this modular data center helps reduce energy consumption, improve recycling of materials used and overall improve energy efficiency.” Note that the heat generated will be reused to heat the Jülich research center.
Europe has already planned to welcome other supercomputers. A second exascale supercomputer, Jules Verne, will thus be hosted in France in 2025. The configuration of an additional mid-range supercomputer, Daedalus, is underway in Greece, announces the European Commission.