A new member of the EuroHPC family, MeluXina has started to operate

A new member of the EuroHPC family, MeluXina has started to operate

On 7 June 2021, the new supercomputer of Luxembourg, MeluXina was inaugurated; with its 10-petaflops performance, it may debut among the 50 most powerful supercomputers in the world. MeluXina will be available for users from both business and research entities.

The formal inauguration of the latest supercomputer of the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking took place in the presence of the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, Henry thus indicating the significance of this event in the life of the country since Luxembourg wishes to become a leading data-driven nation.

As one of the founding members of the EuroHPC initiative, Luxembourg recognised it in time that the EU’s fallback behind the US and Asian countries in the field of HPC could be rectified by establishing a European supercomputer network.

MeluXina is located in Bissen and got its name after a character in a Luxembourgian legend, Meluzina, who was a water nymph sometimes turning into a mermaid. She wanted to keep this secret from her lover, the Duke of Luxembourg, Siegfried, who – despite his previous promise – looked out for her when she was transforming, and Meluzina jumped into the Alzette river and disappeared in the waves.

MeluXina can be regarded as a special infrastructure because while the majority of supercomputers are intended to operate mostly as a research infrastructure, MeluXina focuses on the business sector and is intended to satisfy their needs. More than 700 potential users have been identified across Luxembourg, and 20% of them with extremely high opportunities. Business and industrial considerations were taken into account when designing its modular architecture, and 65% of its capacities will be allocated to private companies.

The computing capacities of MeluXina are complete with a 21-PB data storage infrastructure. The CPU module of the machine has 73344 cores and 293 TB RAM in 573 nodes, which can ensure outstanding performance even under heavy loads. Its computing performance is significantly improved by 800 Nvidia A100 GPUs, which makes it especially suited for computations related to AI, machine learning, or Big Data analysis. Tasks related to the real-time decision support are assisted by 20 FPGA nodes.

In addition to making these capacities available, access to the resources and facilitating their use are also high priorities for Luxembourg. A national HPC Competence Centre similar to the Hungarian one has been established, and this provides operational support and training for the users. The competence centre of Luxembourg is jointly operated by Luxinnovation, LuxProvide, and the University of Luxembourg.

In addition to industrial and economic considerations, environmental awareness is also on their agenda: in terms of energy efficiency, MeluXina is among the 20 best supercomputers in the world.