The “GRNET S.A. Grant for the development of a new national High Performance Computing (HPC) system” Project includes the development of a new system through the procurement of new hardware and infrastructure. The new high-performance supercomputer called “DAEDALUS” will be installed in the Lavrion Technological Cultural Park of the National Technical University of Athens, inside the “Former Electrical Station” building, an industrial heritage monument, covering an area of 1.500sq.m..
GRNET is responsible for the development and operation of the new high-performance supercomputer DAEDALUS. GRNET participates in multiple pan-European HPC initiatives and projects, mainly through the development and support of the existing infrastructure of ARIS supercomputer (Advanced Research Information System). DAEDALUS will have a computational power of >60 Petaflops, 120 times greater than the existing ARIS system, performing sixty million billion (i.e. sixty quadrillion - 60,000,000,000,000,000,000) mobile subspace operations per second. In addition, it will be hybrid, featuring both high-density central processing units (CPUs) and accelerator units.
DAEDALUS is estimated to be amongst the 500 top performance systems (TOP500) and amongst most energy efficient systems (GREEN500) in the world. This will result in strengthening Greece's position in the global map of scientific research, while at the same time providing significant opportunities for scientific development. DAEDALUS is expected to serve a wide range of Greek and European users of the scientific and academic community, the industry and public sector. Meanwhile it will boost the development of new applications in a wide range of research fields such as Computational Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Biomedicine, Meteorology, Artificial Inteligence.
DAEDALUS’s installation in Lavrio has taken into consideration environmentally sustainable design principles. DAEDALUS will be powered by renewable energy systems, while modern cooling systems will be used in order to keep energy costs low. The air conditioning solution is adapted to the weather of Lavrio area (ambient temperatures and relative humidity during the year), taking advantage of the natural environment and is expected to save a significant percentage of the required operational energy (due to cooling), in the range of 40%-50%.
The Project is a derivative from the Digital Transformation Strategy 2020-2025, called: The Digital “Bible” of the Ministry of Digital Governance estimated to be implemented within the framework of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan “Greece 2.0” with the funding of the European Union - NextGenerationEU. At the same time, the Initiative of the Joint Undertaking “European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking - EuroHPC JU” announced that Greece has been selected as one of the five European countries that will host the leading mid-range HPC supercomputers (pre-exascale or petascale HPC). The EuroHPC JU Joint Undertaking allows the European Union and its participating countries to coordinate their efforts and share resources, in order to develop a world-class supercomputing infrastructure and a competitive innovation ecosystem in Europe.
GRNET has over the last two decades been strategically responsible to develop and support major science and technology projects in Greece, as well as support the wider region of Southeast Europe, by coordinating a number of major infrastructure projects. In this context, Cyprus, North Macedonia and Montenegro, as members of the EuroHPC JU Joint Undertaking, have joined the operation consortium of the new supercomputer DAEDALUS. Therefore, these countries will form part of the support consortium of DAEDALUS users and will receive equivalent hours of usage on the new supercomputer.
The procurement cost of DAEDALUS is 36 million euros and will be covered up to 35% by the European Initiative of the EuroHPC JU Joint Undertaking, while 65% of the project will be implemented under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan “Greece 2.0” receiving funds from the European Union - NextGenerationEU. The total cost of this project is estimated more than 50 million euros..
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