GENCI and CNRS choose Eviden to make the Jean Zay supercomputer one
of the most powerful in France
Press release
GENCI and CNRS
choose Eviden to make the Jean Zay supercomputer one of the most
powerful in France
Paris, March 28, 2024
Following the announcement made by the
French President at the Vivatech conference in June 2023, the Grand
Equipement National de Calcul Intensif (GENCI) and the Centre
National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), under the aegis of
the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research, have selected
Eviden to provide a major extension to the capacity of the Jean Zay
supercomputer, funded by the France 2030 Programme. This
announcement marks a new step towards sovereign AI.
After a competitive dialogue phase, GENCI and
CNRS have selected Eviden to supply a new, NVIDIA-powered computing
infrastructure for the French national supercomputing centers.
After preliminary works of compute room adaptation, the NVIDIA H100
Tensor Core GPU-based partition of Jean Zay, GENCI's supercomputer
operated by the CNRS's Institut de développement et de ressources
en informatique scientifique (IDRIS), will be installed by Eviden
in April and will be fully available to users in early summer
2024.
This extension to the Jean Zay computer will
allow an increase in the peak computing power from 36.85 to 125.9
PFlop/s. In so doing, available computing capacity will be
multiplied by 3.5 in double precision (for high-performance
computing) and by 13 if reduced or mixed precision is used, as in
the case of artificial intelligence. Also, a new storage
infrastructure will make it possible to read/write at high speed
and make the associated models and datasets available.
In addition to its level of performance, Jean
Zay is one of the most eco-efficient machines in
Europe, thanks to the massive use of accelerated
technologies (GPUs) and core warm water cooling of the computing
servers. The machine's waste heat is also re-used to help heat more
than 1,000 homes on the Saclay area, thanks to a joint investment
by CNRS and EPAPS1.
The acquisition of this extension, carried out
with the support of the Ministry of Higher Education and Research,
the Directorate General for Enterprise (Ministry of the Economy,
Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty) and the General
Secretariat for Investment, in charge of France 2030, has benefited
from funding from France 2030. IDRIS will operate a computing
machine of exceptional power and functionality, open to national
academic and industrial research communities. They will be able to
carry out numerical simulations using high-performance computing,
and train or specialize so-called "foundation" or "generative"
artificial intelligence models, whether in the field of language
processing, vision, multimodality, explainable AI, or in biology,
health, materials, new energies and low-carbon mobility,
fundamental physics, climate/weather, etc.
This new evolution is in line with the
announcement made by French President Emmanuel Macron on 14 June at
the Vivatech 2023 conference, to support the development of
sovereign artificial intelligence, in particular generative AI. To
this end, GENCI has been awarded €40m. This exceptional grant also
includes an additional €10m to strengthen and extend the human
resources of the French National Artificial Intelligence Research
Programme (PNRIA) and to support AI communities. The goal is to
guarantee the long-term quality of the service provided by the CNRS
network of AI support engineers, which helps AI communities to
carry out their projects at Jean Zay.
This new availability of computing resources
available to scientific communities will help to boost the
capabilities of the French AI sector in the face of international
competition.
ConfigurationIn total after
this extension, Jean Zay will be equipped with 1,456 NVIDIA H100
GPUs, in addition to the 416 NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core GPUs and 1,832
NVIDIA V100 Tensor Core GPUs remaining from the old configuration.
Jean Zay's increased power will be provided by 14 Eviden
BullSequana XH3000 compute racks featuring 364 dual-processor Intel
Sapphire Rapids 48-core servers, 512 GB of memory and four NVIDIA
H100 80GB SXM5 GPUs, each interconnected by four high-speed NVIDIA
ConnectX-7 400Gb/s InfiniBand network adapters.
The storage environment will be completely
overhauled, offering a first level of 4.3 PB of flash technology
(read/write speeds of over 1 TB/s) and a second level of 39 PB of
fast disk technology (read/write speeds of over 300 GB/s), both
under Lustre and supplied by DDN.
Eviden BullSequana extension to Jean Zay
supercomputer
Quotes
Bruno Le Maire, French Minister for the
Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty
“France's position as a world leader in artificial intelligence
will depend in particular on its access to the public and private
computing power needed to develop competitive models. The extension
of the Jean Zay supercomputer is the first step in the deployment
of a global strategy aimed at developing computing power in France
that is accessible to researchers, start-ups and digital companies,
in support of the development of our AI ecosystem under sovereign
conditions.”
Sylvie Retailleau, French Minister for
Higher Education and Research “I would like to
congratulate the GENCI and CNRS teams on this new step, which will
enable the Jean Zay extension to be implemented very quickly. By
enabling Jean Zay to become the largest supercomputer dedicated to
AI in France, this investment is essential to meet the new needs,
both existing and future, for research and innovation in AI. It
will help to raise the profile of France's role in this field,
complementing the key roles played by the CEA and Inria in terms of
digital infrastructure and AI.”
Bruno Bonnell, Secretary General for
Investment, in charge of France 2030“We are delighted with
this decisive step, which will enable France to equip itself with a
competitive and attractive state-of-the-art computing
infrastructure, essential if we are to consolidate our position in
the frantic race for artificial intelligence. It will turn the
advances made by our dynamic research ecosystem into real
industrial successes. With France 2030, our ambition is to combine
sovereignty and technology.”
Philippe Lavocat, CEO of GENCI
“With the extension of the Jean Zay supercomputer and the choice of
Eviden following the procedure conducted jointly by GENCI and
IDRIS, France has acquired a major asset that will enable it to put
the best computing technologies, combined with artificial
intelligence, at the service of science and innovation. The €40m
funding is equivalent to what has already been invested in the
entire current Jean Zay machine. With more than 1,000 AI projects
already using this supercomputer's capabilities by 2023, the new
sovereign infrastructure will be a key factor in fostering major
breakthroughs in academic and industrial research.”
Antoine Petit, Chairman and CEO of
CNRS“The Jean Zay supercomputer is a key factor in
France's attractiveness and contribution in terms of AI research at
the highest international level. The French government has
entrusted the CNRS with the responsibility of hosting and operating
this research infrastructure, via its Institut du développement et
des ressources en informatique scientifique (IDRIS), confirming its
role as a key player in AI research. The exceptional capabilities
provided by the new Jean Zay extension represent a tremendous
opportunity for the entire French scientific and industrial
community. They will also enable us to meet the challenges posed by
foundation models, both concerning scientific research and
innovation and technology transfer.”
Emmanuel Le Roux, SVP, HPC, AI and
Quantum Director at Eviden, Atos Group“We are delighted to
have been chosen by GENCI to develop one of the most powerful
supercomputers in France, dedicated to supporting French AI
research. Thanks to this collaboration, which brings together the
best of our experts, France's academic and industrial research
communities will have all the power they need for their work. This
collaboration will help to foster the emergence of both new AI
models and new computing technologies dedicated to AI.”
John Josephakis, Global VP of Sales and
Business Development for HPC and Supercomputing at NVIDIA
“The NVIDIA accelerated computing platform supercharges systems
such as Jean Zay with the extreme performance required to advance
the next generation of scientific research. Jean Zay, powered by
NVIDIA H100 and using our advanced AI software and networking, will
bring exascale AI and HPC performance to help solve the greatest
scientific challenges faced by society.”
About
GENCI Created by the public
authorities in 2007, GENCI (Grand Équipement National de Calcul
Intensif) is a major research infrastructure. This public operator
aims to democratise the use of digital simulation through high
performance computing associated with the use of artificial
intelligence, and quantum computing to support French scientific
and industrial competitiveness.
GENCI is in charge of three missions:
- To implement the
national strategy for the provision of high-performance computing
resources, storage, massive data processing associated with
Artificial Intelligence technologies and quantum computing, for the
benefit of French scientific research, in conjunction with the 3
national computing centres (CEA/TGCC, CNRS/IDRIS, France
Universités/CINES).
- Supporting the
creation of an integrated ecosystem on a national and European
levels
- Promoting digital
simulation and supercomputing to academic research and
industry
GENCI is a civil company 49% owned by the State represented by
the Ministry in charge of Higher Education and Research, 20% by the
CEA, 20% by the CNRS, 10% by the Universities represented by France
Universités and 1% by Inria.
CNRSA major player in basic
research worldwide, the National Centre for Scientific Research
(CNRS) is the only French organisation active in all scientific
fields. Its unique position as a multi-specialist enables it to
bring together all of the scientific disciplines in order to shed
light on and understand the challenges of today's world, in
connection with public and socio-economic stakeholders. Together,
the different sciences contribute to sustainable progress that
benefits society as a whole.
About
Eviden2Eviden is a next-gen technology
leader in data-driven, trusted and sustainable digital
transformation with a strong portfolio of patented technologies.
With worldwide leading positions in advanced computing, security,
AI, cloud and digital platforms, it provides deep expertise for all
industries in more than 47 countries. Bringing together 47,000
world-class talents, Eviden expands the possibilities of data and
technology across the digital continuum, now and for generations to
come. Eviden is an Atos Group company with an annual revenue of c.
€ 5 billion.
About France 2030
Presented on 12 October 2021 by the President of
the French Republic France 2030:
- Translates a dual
ambition: to transform key sectors of our
economy (energy, automotive, health, aeronautics and
space) over the long term through technological and industrial
innovation, and to position France not just as a player,
but as a leader in the world of tomorrow. From fundamental
research, to the emergence of an idea, through to the production of
a new product or service, France 2030 supports the entire life
cycle of innovation, right through to its industrialisation.
- Is unprecedented in terms
of its scale: €54 billion will be
invested to ensure that our businesses, universities and research
bodies are able to successfully make the transition in these
strategic sectors. The aim is to enable them to respond
competitively to the ecological and attractiveness challenges of
the world to come, and to develop the future champions of
our sectors of excellence, thereby strengthening French
sovereignty and independence in key sectors. To this end,
50% of spending will be devoted to decarbonising the economy, and
50% will be earmarked for emerging players, bringing innovation
that has no adverse impact on the environment (in line with the Do
No Significant Harm principle).
- Will be implemented
collectively: the plan is designed and deployed in
consultation with local and European economic and academic
players, who have helped to determine its strategic
directions and key actions. Project leaders are
invited to submit their applications via open, demanding and
selective procedures in order to benefit from government
support.
- Is managed by the General
Secretariat for Investment on behalf of the Prime Minister
and implemented by the French Environment and Energy Management
Agency (ADEME), the French National Research
Agency (ANR), Bpifrance and the
Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC).
For more information : https://www.france2030.gouv.fr
Press and
Media Contacts
GENCINicolas Belot I
nicolas.belot@genci.fr I +33 (0) 7 60 99 95 19
CNRSPriscilla Dacher |
priscilla.dacher@cnrs.fr | +33 (0) 6 09 34 90 21
EVIDEN Laura Fau I
laura.fau@atos.net I +33 (0) 6 73 64 04 18
Bruno Le Maire’s Office
presse.mineco@cabinets.finances.gouv.fr I +33 (0)1 53 18 41 13
Sylvie Retailleau’s Office
presse-mesr@recherche.gouv.fr I +33 (0)1 55 55 82 00
General Secretariat for
Investmentpresse.sgpi@pm.gouv.fr I +33 (0)1 42 75 64
58
1 Établissement public d'aménagement de Paris-Saclay
(Paris-Saclay public development establishment)2 Eviden business is
operated through the following brands: AppCentrica, ATHEA,
Cloudamize, Cloudreach, Cryptovision, DataSentics, Edifixio,
Energy4U, Engage ESM, Evidian, Forensik, IDEAL GRP, In Fidem,
Ipsotek, Maven Wave, Profit4SF, SEC Consult, Visual BI, Worldgrid,
X-Perion. Eviden is a registered trademark. © Eviden SAS, 2024.
- PR - GENCI and CNRS choose Eviden to make the Jean Zay
supercomputer one of the most powerful in France
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