EUPEX Pilot goals to reveal Europe’s readiness to construct absolutely sovereign ARM-based supercomputers from chip to software program.
Excessive Efficiency Computing (HPC) has quietly turn into one of many key pillars of contemporary societies. From local weather modelling and climate forecasting to drug discovery, synthetic intelligence, industrial design, or vitality optimisation, supercomputers now underpin a number of the most crucial scientific, financial, and societal advances. As knowledge volumes develop exponentially and computational calls for proceed to rise, entry to highly effective, environment friendly, and scalable HPC infrastructures is now not a luxurious; it’s a strategic necessity.
Past its many purposes, HPC has additionally turn into a strategic asset. The flexibility to construct and function highly effective supercomputers more and more impacts technological independence and Europe’s place on the worldwide stage. With main investments coming from the USA and Asia, Europe faces the problem of growing its personal applied sciences whereas staying aggressive on the highest degree.
EUPEX, a European mission funded by the EuroHPC Joint Endeavor, tackles this problem head-on. Its purpose is to create a pilot supercomputing platform solely based mostly on European applied sciences, from the {hardware} to the software program stack. The platform will use new ARM-based processors designed for the efficiency, vitality effectivity, and scalability wanted in next-generation HPC techniques, providing a tangible step towards Europe’s computing independence.
The pilot will likely be coupled with European-developed software program options, offering a practical atmosphere to check readiness, scalability, and operational reliability. In doing so, EUPEX Pilot goals not solely to show that Europe can ship aggressive, high-performance supercomputing infrastructures, but additionally to develop and reveal European experience in microelectronics, system structure, and HPC software program. The mission additionally explicitly prepares purposes and European customers to effectively exploit future Exascale machines, offering alternatives for co-design and early testing of workflows and software program on the brand new platform.
Bringing collectively main European analysis centres, know-how suppliers, and industrial companions, EUPEX Pilot units the stage for the subsequent period of European supercomputers, exhibiting {that a} absolutely European stack can function at scale and paving the way in which for bigger, sovereign HPC techniques.
The EUPEX consortium
On the coronary heart of this ambition is a various and strategically balanced consortium of 17 European organisations, every contributing distinctive experience to the problem of constructing a completely European HPC ecosystem. The consortium consists of established know-how suppliers, analysis establishments, nationwide supercomputing centres, industrial innovators, and utility stakeholders. Coordinated by Eviden, these companions make sure that analysis and growth efforts translate into industrialised options based mostly on European applied sciences. Key members embrace: Forschungszentrum Jülich, CEA, GENCI, Cineca, E4 Pc Engineering, ParTec, EXAPSYS, SECO, CybeleTech, ECMWF, Politecnico di Milano / CINI, College of Mainz, IT4Innovations, College of Zagreb, and different main educational establishments. Collectively, they type a European ecosystem of experience that underpins the technical and strategic aims of EUPEX Pilot.
The EUPEX Pilot System
Constructing on the experience of its consortium throughout Europe, the EUPEX Pilot System is designed to showcase a completely European HPC platform that meets the wants of present and future scientific purposes. The mission has two essential aims. First, it goals to design the {hardware} structure of the Pilot platform, enabling the mixing of numerous applied sciences in a versatile and scalable atmosphere. Second, it’s going to deploy and function an ARM-based Pilot production-class platform, alongside early take a look at techniques, making them accessible to the European scientific group to foster innovation and co-design of purposes.
To fulfill these aims, the EUPEX Pilot platform is designed to evolve over time, integrating European {hardware} applied sciences as they turn into accessible. This makes it doable to mix early take a look at platforms with a production-class atmosphere and to arrange, step-by-step, for the arrival of next-generation European processors.
Inside this framework, a key element of the Pilot System is the Normal-Objective Processing (GPP) module. This processor is designed and built-in onto a motherboard throughout the European Processor Initiative (EPI mission) and based mostly on the Rhea chip developed by SiPearl, is included right into a GPP blade. This blade is developed throughout the EUPEX mission and makes use of the BXI (Bull eXascale Interconnect) to supply low-latency, high-throughput communication between nodes. These GPP blades will then be built-in right into a BullSequana XH3000 rack developed by Eviden, outfitted with liquid cooling. The BullSequana XH3000 design permits modular enlargement and maintains a Energy Utilization Effectiveness (PUE) near 1, making it energy-efficient whereas adaptable to completely different system setups. This integration represents a central goal of the EUPEX mission: validating the deployment of a European-designed ARM processor in a production-class HPC system.
Because the GPP processor continues to be underneath growth, the EUPEX Pilot platform is ready as a testbed for its future integration. The present Pilot is constructed with ARM processors to validate the system structure and the software program atmosphere that may help the focused Rhea chip in a production-class setting. This preparation permits EUPEX to confirm {hardware} integration, take a look at software program compatibility, and collect sensible insights to information larger-scale deployments sooner or later.
On the software program facet, the system makes use of ParaStation Modulo from Partec, a software program suite for the operation of large-scale distributed-memory HPC techniques, and OCEAN, developed by CEA, which gives an open-source cluster administration stack confirmed on massive HPC techniques. Extra open-source instruments and libraries developed by EUPEX companions help utility efficiency, vitality effectivity, and operational optimisation.
The EUPEX Pilot System is designed as a proof-of-concept at a significant scale. Its structure is adequate to judge purposes, workflows, and system software program in situations near manufacturing. Chosen purposes have been co-designed and deployed to check scalability, efficiency, and vitality effectivity on ARM-based European {hardware}. Past technical validation, the Pilot gives a shared atmosphere for European analysis groups and utility homeowners, providing early entry to new {hardware} applied sciences and concrete suggestions for future system designs.
The EUPEX Software program stack
The EUPEX Pilot locations sturdy emphasis on the software program stack, which is a decisive aspect for the efficient exploitation of ARM-based HPC techniques. The mission addresses a strategic requirement: the supply of a European software program ecosystem that doesn’t depend on non-European applied sciences. For a lot of scientific, industrial, and institutional customers, HPC techniques help extremely delicate and strategic actions, making software program independence, safety, and long-term management important. EUPEX subsequently goals to outline and deploy a software program atmosphere absolutely aligned with European applied sciences and practices.
The EUPEX software program stack is designed to help each utility execution and system operation on the pilot. Its scope covers 4 essential technical areas.
First, the administration layer defines a software program stack to help the administration of modular techniques, whereas remaining sufficiently versatile to accommodate evolving and future {hardware} architectures. This consists of system configuration, monitoring, and operational management tailored to modular HPC environments.
Second, the execution atmosphere integrates the parts required to allow environment friendly use of all accessible sources throughout the EUPEX platform. It helps heterogeneous workloads and ensures that scientific purposes can exploit a number of {hardware} modules in a coherent and environment friendly method.
Third, a devoted set of instruments assists each utility builders and system operators, serving to to optimise system utilisation with respect to efficiency and vitality effectivity, together with utility tuning, efficiency evaluation, and operational optimisation.
Fourth, the storage structure is outlined as a multi-tier system to satisfy the I/O calls for of large-scale platforms, transparently integrating quick storage applied sciences whereas minimising knowledge motion, crucial for each efficiency and vitality effectivity.
As well as, all codes and purposes used within the mission are ported and tailored to ARM architectures, permitting EUPEX to arrange key scientific and industrial purposes for the architectures of tomorrow. This course of additionally presents sensible expertise to European HPC specialists, serving to them purchase the abilities wanted to function and optimise future Exascale-class European supercomputers.
EUPEX addresses the requirement that European HPC techniques should preserve management over the complete stack by combining software program and {hardware} growth. The mission gives software program options that meet safety necessities, help environment friendly execution, and tackle vitality effectivity, complementing the Pilot {hardware} platform and getting ready the groundwork for future large-scale European supercomputing techniques.
Connecting with the HPC group
Alongside the event of its pilot system, EUPEX locations sturdy emphasis on sharing data with the European HPC group. The mission is designed to be open and accessible, making certain that the expertise gained throughout system design, software program integration, and utility porting can profit a wider viewers.
EUPEX researchers recurrently share their outcomes by way of month-to-month webinars, the place they current concrete outcomes from the mission. These periods deal with the purposes analysed and optimised inside EUPEX, and on key parts of the EUPEX software program stack. The webinars are interactive and permit contributors to trade straight with the mission groups. All recordings are made accessible on the EUPEX YouTube channel, offering long-term entry to the fabric.
Along with webinars, the mission organises workshops and hands-on tutorials. These occasions are geared toward utility builders, system operators, and researchers who want to achieve a deeper understanding of ARM-based architectures, HPC techniques, and the software program instruments developed inside EUPEX. By sensible periods, contributors can experiment with the applied sciences, discover optimisation methods, and construct experience related to future European supercomputing platforms.
EUPEX additionally helps early engagement by way of its Early Entry Programme (EAP). Chosen organisations, together with EuroHPC Centres of Excellence, EU-funded analysis initiatives, and different stakeholders, are granted entry to a Grace-based partition that’s consultant of the longer term SiPearl Rhea processors. This enables purposes to be ported, examined, and optimised prematurely, whereas additionally offering entry to the software program instruments deliberate for deployment on the EUPEX Pilot System.
Taken collectively, these actions complement the technical work of the mission. EUPEX Pilot brings collectively {hardware} growth, software program integration, utility co-design, and group engagement to reveal the feasibility of a completely European, ARM-based supercomputing stack. The mission gives a concrete step in direction of future large-scale European HPC techniques, supporting technological sovereignty and the sensible adoption of next-generation ARM architectures.
Acknowledgement
This mission has obtained funding from the European Excessive-Efficiency Computing Joint Endeavor (JU) underneath grant settlement No 101033975. The JU receives help from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 analysis and innovation programme and France, Germany, Italy, Greece, the UK, the Czech Republic, and Croatia.
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