Atos's supercomputer to pave the way for Bulgaria's leading position in high-tech

This will be the most powerful supercomputer in Eastern Europe and is expected to be operational in July 2021

Paris (France), Prague (Czech Republic), Sofia (Bulgaria) 11 May 2021

Atos today announces that Bulgaria’s new EuroHPC supercomputer, which is based on Atos’ powerful BullSequana XH2000 architecture, is now fully delivered and assembled at Sofia Tech Park in Bulgaria. Atos was selected to build Bulgaria’s petascale supercomputer by the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU), the hosting entity, and the consortium “Petascale Supercomputer Bulgaria” (PetaSC-Bulgaria) whose leading partner is Sofia Tech Park.

This will be the most powerful supercomputer in Eastern Europe and will help to leverage Bulgaria’s high-tech ambitions. Atos’ Czech Republic project teams have already started the configuration tests and the supercomputer is expected to start working operationally in July 2021.

The supercomputer will help improve European scientific research and foster innovation by providing access to state-of-the-art HPC infrastructure and services to a wide range of users from the scientific research community, industry and the public sector.

It will serve the development of scientific, public and industrial applications in many fields, including bioinformatics, pharmacy, molecular dynamics and mechanics, quantum chemistry and biochemistry, artificial intelligence, personalized medicine, bioengineering, meteorology, and the fight against climate change.

“We are impressed by the professionalism of the Atos team. The work on the delivery and installation of the machine is ahead of schedule. The big challenge for the Consortium “Petascale Supercomputer – Bulgaria” team is building and making a valuable connection between the academy, the industry, the Sofia Tech Park, and the petascale computer. In this regard, we communicate with the existing EuroHPC centers and have initiated meetings with the academy and industry representatives. We already have the first requests for solving pragmatic tasks in chemistry, medicine, and biology. Of course, we are also looking forward to the future – we are talking with Atos to add their platform and experience in quantum computers”, said Peter Statev, the Chairman of the Supervisory Board at Sofia Tech Park.

“As Europe’s leading supercomputing manufacturer, we are proud to be supporting researchers in industry and universities across Europe accelerate scientific discovery and to develop solutions for current challenges such as those in health, energy and agriculture. The use of artificial intelligence in research has increased the need for more flexibility and more versatility in supercomputing, which is exactly what we can provide with our BullSequana XH2000 so that our customers can benefit from the new capacities of hybrid workloads.” said Agnès Boudot, Senior Vice President, Head of HPC & Quantum at Atos.

The supercomputer is co-financed by the Republic of Bulgaria and EuroHPC JU with a joint investment totaling EUR 11.5 million.

In addition to this EuroHPC tender, Atos’ BullSequana will also be used in four additional EuroHPC supercomputing centres; CINECA in Italy, IZUM in Slovenia, with LuxProvide in Luxembourg and in the Minho Advanced Computing Centre in Portugal, thereby reinforcing Atos’ position as a European leader in high-performance computing.

31 Atos supercomputers are listed in the TOP500 worldwide supercomputer ranking, with a combined peak performance of 251 petaflops – this is an increase of 79% in petaflops from the TOP500 listing in June 2020.

###

Technical Specifications

The size of the RAM reaches over 300 TB and the number of cores is 144 384, while the computer is built on AMD EPYC processors cooled by hot water and has a fast disk storage with a capacity of 2 PB. The entire system is backed up against a power failure by an uninterruptible power supply with an output of 1 MW. The size of the system is 12 computing racks and 2 racks with auxiliary infrastructure. The whole complex weighs over 30 tons.

About Atos

Atos is a global leader in digital transformation with 105,000 employees and annual revenue of over € 11 billion. European number one in cybersecurity, cloud and high-performance computing, the Group provides tailored end-to-end solutions for all industries in 71 countries. A pioneer in decarbonization services and products, Atos is committed to a secure and decarbonized digital for its clients. Atos operates under the brands Atos and Atos|Syntel. Atos is a SE (Societas Europaea), listed on the CAC40 Paris stock index.

The purpose of Atos is to help design the future of the information space. Its expertise and services support the development of knowledge, education and research in a multicultural approach and contribute to the development of scientific and technological excellence. Across the world, the Group enables its customers and employees, and members of societies at large to live, work and develop sustainably, in a safe and secure information space.

Additional information for journalists

Atos has been operating in the Czech Republic since September 1, 2011 following the acquisition of Siemens IT Solutions and Services, s.r.o. With more than 300 employees in 4 branches, it generated an external revenue of €63m in 2020. Atos in Bulgaria has more than 1200 employees working in two legal entities providing world-class IT solutions for corporate clients in the CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) and F&B (Food & Beverage) sectors as well as a wide range of end-to-end services (20+ business functions and 1000+ processes) within the Atos group.

Press Contacts:

Bulgaria: Debora Apostolova | debora.apostolova@atos.net | +35 98 83 22 25 01

Global: Laura Fau | laura.fau@atos.net | +33 6 73 64 04 18 | @laurajanefau

Photo: Atos BullSequana XH2000 supercomputer at Sofia Tech Park in Bulgaria with Jaroslav Vojtěch, Head of HPC & Big Data at Atos in Czech Republic.