Atos and the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne's supercomputing centre, have recently announced the inauguration of their new supercomputer ROMEO. This system, based on a BullSequana X1000, is in the TOP500 and 20th in the GREEN500 ranking.
The University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne announced the availability of its new supercomputer Romeo, under sponsorship of renown French mathematician and Fields Medal laureate Cédric Villani, in a ceremony with representatives from Atos, CEA DAM, GENCI and Nvidia.
‘We are very proud of the launch of this supercomputer at the University Centre of Champagne Ardennes’ says Pierre Barnabé, chief operating officer, big data and security at Atos. ‘This installation confirms the strategic engagement of the Atos Group in R&D in scientific computing. The BullSequana supercomputer brings a level of power that is needed by the digital simulation projects of the University and it also offers the necessary functionalities for the convergence of Artificial Intelligence and scientific computing, which the URCA requested.’
With a peak performance of 1 petaflops and equipped with some of the most powerful processors on the market and the latest Telsa graphic processors from NVIDIA, this supercomputer provides an architecture which brings together digital simulation with Artificial Intelligence.
The supercomputer uses Atos' BXI (Bull eXascale Interconnect) which offers performance, scalability, efficiency, reliability and quality of service for extreme workloads. It will enable both academic organisations and industry players to take advantage of a vast computing power for their digital simulation projects and to develop applications using the latest advances in Artificial Intelligence and high-performance data analytics.
Villani recent authored a report on Artificial Intelligence, at the request of the French government, and this new supercomputer is fully in-line with France's national strategy to become a leader in AI. The supercomputer is focused on the four priority sectors identified for the development of artificial intelligence: health, transport, environment and defence.
ROMEO is a real opportunity to innovative locally. The supercomputer is already being used by academic and industry researchers, who are using this supercomputer in areas of agriculture, banking and the automobile sector.
NVIDIA congratulates the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne on its new supercomputer ROMEO which broadens its strong partnership, which has been well-established for many years.
‘Built on the foundations of our longstanding partnership with the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne, the new supercomputer ROMEO will enable researchers to shape the world of tomorrow using high-performance computing and AI,’ says Jaap Zuiderveld, VP Europe at Nvidia. ‘The ROMEO installation is complemented by URCA's new master CHPS and the courses at the NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute offered at the University, which will enable a new generation of AI researchers to prosper.’
‘This new supercomputer is positioned at the heart of the digital Sciences and Engineering Division developed by our university. Thanks to the high-performance computing and simulation, this supercomputer enables us to achieve results, which were unimaginable a few years ago. ROMEO now is part of solving complex problems in the fields of Industry 4.0, bio-economy, energy, climate, health, materials and technological transformations by associating academic and industrial research’ said Guillaume Garraway, president of the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne.
