© Cyril FRESILLON/Idris/CNRS Photothèque

A powerful supercomputer on the campus of Paris-Saclay

Research Article published on 30 January 2020 , Updated on 30 January 2020

Located within IDRIS on the Saclay plateau, the new Jean Zay supercomputer brings to French research a significantly increased computing power and this for the first time in the field of artificial intelligence.

16 million billion calculations per second (16 petaflops), the equivalent of some 35,000 personal computers combined. Nearly 1,300 graphics processing units (GPUs). A cost of 25 million euros. The values of the new Jean Zay supercomputer are enough to make you dizzy. Inaugurated on 24 January 2020, this converged supercomputer, combining high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI), is based at CNRS's Institute for Development and Resources in Scientific Computing (IDRIS), on the campus of Université Paris-Saclay in Orsay (Essonne).

The development of the machine, which is part of the AI for Humanity strategy sought by President Emmanuel Macron to make France a leader in artificial intelligence, is the answer that the scientific community has been waiting for. "This supercomputer is a major lever for the competitiveness and positioning of France and Europe in AI technologies," stresses Bertrand Braunschweig, Director of the Inria mission to coordinate the national AI research programme. The machine now doubles the computing capacity of French academic and industrial researchers.

For nine months, HPC experts and engineers from Hewlett Packard Entreprise (HPE), which designed the supercomputer, worked together with teams from IDRIS and GENCI - the French National High-Performance Computing Authority - to deliver one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world. "Bringing the AI and HPC communities closer together was both a cultural and technological challenge," acknowledges Philippe Lavocat, CEO of GENCI, the civil society group responsible for democratising the use of digital simulation and HPC among researchers and industries. The Jean Zay supercomputer is the third most powerful French supercomputer and is among the top 50 in the world.

A powerful computing tool at the service of communities

Named in honor of one of the founding fathers of CNRS, the Jean Zay supercomputer is made available free of charge to scientists - at discretion for those in AI and through biannual calls for projects for other fields. Operated by several research teams since its installation at IDRIS a few months ago, the machine is delivering its first results. "It's a tremendous accelerator for science!" enthuses Philippe Lavocat.

Simulations of complex molecules, such as DNA, in their environment, of the passage of signals and the transfer of ions in the brain, of the evolution of the climate according to the number and size of the sets studied, the duration or the resolution envisaged: the machine can handle, in considerably reduced timescales today, very complex problems in fields as varied as climatology, biology, astrophysics, health, engineering, and - as stated - artificial intelligence. "The supercomputer makes it possible to address the entire spectrum of artificial intelligence, from Big Data to deep learning," confirms Pierre-François Lavallée, current director of IDRIS.

The machine also meets eco-responsible specifications and is designed to be energy-efficient: its cooling system uses hot water, which enters at 32°C and exits at 42°C. The heat stored by this water is used to heat IDRIS building and some others buildings. The system will soon be connected to the heating network of the campus Paris-Saclay.

Freshly operational, the supercomputer will already benefit from several improvements and its computing power will reach 30 petaflops by the end of 2020. This will push the limits of what is possible with computer technology even further...