The University of Stuttgart and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) have brought Germany into a new age of computing power. By establishing two cutting-edge supercomputers at Stuttgart’s High-Performance Computing Center (HLRS), this alliance hopes to revolutionize Germany’s high-performance computing (HPC) industry.
The first phase of this massive project is scheduled to launch in 2025 with the deployment of ‘Hunter,’ a transitional supercomputer. It is envisaged that Hunter will serve as a forerunner to the more sophisticated ‘Herder,’ an exascale system that will be deployed in 2027. Herder is anticipated to greatly improve Germany’s HPC capacities by offering a unique, high-performing platform for applied sciences and computational engineering research.
The combined investment for Hunter and Herder totals an impressive €115 million. The Gauss Centre for Supercomputing (GCS), which is a partnership of Germany’s three leading supercomputing institutions, is responsible for securing this funding support. The financing is split equally between the Ministry of Science, Research, and the Arts of the State of Baden-Württemberg and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
Hunter is a revolutionary advancement in computing that is slated to replace Hawk, the current flagship model from HLRS. Constructed to facilitate the shift to Herder's sophisticated architecture, Hunter boasts the exascale-capable HPE Cray EX4000 supercomputer. A diverse range of workloads, including modeling, simulation, artificial intelligence (AI), and high-performance data analytics (HPDA), will be supported by this resilient system.
136 HPE Cray EX4000 nodes, each equipped with four HPE Slingshot high-performance interconnects, are among Hunter's technical miracles. It also includes the HPE Cray Programming Environment and the next-generation Cray ClusterStor storage system, which improves application development and optimization.
“Increasingly it’s not just faster hardware but optimal usage of the system that is the greatest performance factor in simulation and artificial intelligence,” said Dr. Bastian Koller, General Manager at HLRS. “We are particularly excited that we have found a globally leading partner for these topics in Hewlett Packard Enterprise, who together with AMD will open up new horizons of performance for our clients.”
“HLRS has demonstrated the power of supercomputing in research and applied science, and we are honored to have been with them on this journey,” said Justin Hotard, Executive Vice President and General Manager, HPC, AI & Labs, Hewlett Packard Enterprise. “We look forward to building on our collaboration to pave the way to exascale for HLRS using the HPE Cray EX supercomputer. The new system will enable scientific and technological innovation to accelerate economic growth.”
Reaching One Quintillion FLOPS
Hunter will reach a peak of 39 petaFLOPS, a considerable increase above Hawk's 26 petaFLOPS. Its move from CPU processors to more energy-efficient GPUs is revolutionary since it uses a significant amount less energy. An 80% decrease in energy consumption compared to Hawk at peak performance is promised by the incorporation of the AMD Instinct MI300A accelerated processing unit (APU) in Hunter, a tribute to its power and efficiency.
Conversely, Herder is expected to be an exascale supercomputer with throughput reaching one quintillion FLOPS. The ultimate arrangement, which will be decided upon by 2025, would greatly broaden the scope of computational applications at HLRS.
The HLRS user community must, however, adjust to this technical improvement. HPE and HLRS will work together to make this easier by making sure that current software is adjusted for the new systems.
A key component of the national plan of the Gauss Centre for Supercomputing is the transition of HLRS towards exascale computing. This plan calls for the construction of top-notch systems at all three of Germany's GCS facilities, including the Leibniz Supercomputing Center's wide-usage system and the Jülich Supercomputing Center’s impending JUPITER supercomputer.
Pioneering research in engineering and applied sciences will be made possible in Stuttgart and beyond thanks to Hunter and Herder. Innovation in fields such as vehicle design, wind turbine efficiency, novel materials, and artificial intelligence applications in manufacturing will be propelled by these supercomputers. They will also be essential in solving global issues like crisis management and climate change.
”AMD is pleased to expand our collaboration with HLRS in Stuttgart and HPE. We are providing our cutting-edge AMD Instinct MI300A datacenter accelerator to the Hunter project, aiming to enhance performance, efficiency, and data transfer speeds,” said Mario Silveira, Corporate Vice President OEM Sales, AMD. “This initiative will establish a state-of-the-art infrastructure tailored for research, AI workloads, and simulations. Anticipated for arrival by 2025, Hunter aligns with HLRS’s ambitious exascale plans for Germany, showcasing our commitment to advancing technological capabilities and fostering innovation together with our partners in the years to come.”
“Funded by the BMBF and the State of Baden-Württemberg, the expansion of the computing infrastructure of the Gauss Centre for Supercomputing at its Stuttgart location is an important step on the road to more computing power for Germany’s research and innovation landscape,” said Mario Brandenburg, Parliamentary State Secretary, Federal Ministry for Education and Research, BMBF. “The unique concept behind the computing architecture at HLRS will ensure that not just science but also industry, SMEs, and start-ups will have first-class conditions for developing new innovations. This expansion also means increased computing capacity for the development of AI and a strengthening of Germany’s AI infrastructure, in accordance with the federal research ministry’s AI action plan.”
