The Way Is Open to Building a EuroHPC World-Class Supercomputer in Ireland

Once deployed, CASPIr will be a mid-range supercomputer capable of performing over 15 petaflops or 15 million billion operations every second. It will support cutting-edge AI and machine learning workloads, handling small-scale training and interference tasks as part of larger simulation and data analysis workflows.

The new system will support the broader European AI Factories (AIF) strategy, which is building open AI ecosystems around EuroHPC supercomputing facilities to drive a competitive and innovative AI landscape across Europe. In particular, it will strengthen the newly selected AIF IRL-Antenna, which will serve as Ireland’s central hub for advancing and connecting the national AI ecosystem. While IRL-Antenna will primarily collaborate with AI2F in France and the Luxembourg AI Factory , these efforts will work in a complementary way to accelerate the adoption of HPC and AI technologies both within Ireland and across Europe.

This new supercomputer will be operated by the Irish Centre for High-End Computing (ICHEC), based at University of Galway.  CASPIr will be co-funded by the EuroHPC JU and by Ireland through national funds.

The new supercomputer will serve a wide range of users in the scientific community, industry and the public sector, both in Ireland and across Europe. Access to its computing resources will be jointly managed by Ireland and the EuroHPC JU in proportion to their respective investments.   

The hosting agreement, which has now been signed, is a contractual document that defines the roles, rights and obligations of each party.  The procurement process for this new supercomputer will be managed by the University of Galway in collaboration with EuroHPC JU and will begin in the immediate future. 

Background

The EuroHPC JU is a legal and funding entity that brings together the European Union and participating countries to coordinate efforts and pool resources with the objective of making Europe a world leader in supercomputing.    

To equip Europe with a cutting-edge supercomputing infrastructure, the EuroHPC JU has already procured 11 supercomputers, distributed across Europe. Three of these EuroHPC supercomputers are now ranked among the world’s top 10 most powerful supercomputers: JUPITER in Germany, Europe’s first exascale system (4^th place), along with LUMI in Finland (9^th place), Leonardo in Italy (10^th place). 

European scientists and users from the public sector and industry can benefit from EuroHPC supercomputers via the EuroHPC Access Calls no matter where in Europe they are located, to advance science and support the development of a wide range of applications with industrial, scientific and societal relevance for Europe. 

Currently, the EuroHPC JU is also overseeing the implementation of 19 AI factories across Europe that offer free, customised support to SMEs and startups. Six new AI Factories were announced last week, while thirteen AI Factory Antennas have been announced today, to complement the existing network. This step will strengthen European national AI ecosystems and expand access to AI-optimised supercomputing resources across Europe.

Additionally, the EuroHPC JU is deploying a European Quantum Computing infrastructure, integrating diverse European quantum computing technologies with existing supercomputers.  

The EuroHPC JU also funds  research and innovation projects to develop a full European supercomputing supply chain, from processors and software to applications to be run on these supercomputers and know-how to develop strong European HPC expertise.