No less than three supercomputers for European research were unveiled on 26th May in Germany by the German Minister for Education and Research, Annette Schavan, and the Chief Minister of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Juergen Ruettgers.

The three computers include the supercomputer 'JUGENE', which with a computing power of one petaflop, is currently the fastest computer in Europe. One petaflop is the ability to compute trillion arithmetic operations per second. 50,000 PCs would have to be connected to achieve this level of performance.

“The supercomputer will secure Europe's independent access to a decisive key technology of the 21st century,” said Prof. Dr. Achim Bachem, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Research Centre at Juelich.

“This is a good day for the German Gauss Centre and a good day for Europe as well. Acquiring 'JUGENE' demonstrates Germany’s bid for leadership in supercomputing," said Education Minister Schavan at the opening ceremony.

The simulation of complex processes forms a key role in research along with theory and experimentation. Supercomputers provide a competitive edge in scientific innovations and at the same time conserve resources by saving time and materials.

The three national supercomputing centres in Stuttgart, Garching and Juelich together form the Gauss Centre for Supercomputing an initiative of the Ministry for Education and Research along with the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria.

Researchers from all disciplines will be able to use the supercomputers in order to discover how the climate is changing, how proteins are folded in cells, how new semiconductors function or how fuel cells can be improved. Juelich’s approach is to provide a system of complementary computers with a suitable platform for all application and to create an optimum research environment.

Also read:

• European Fusion supercomputer to be set up in Germany
• Solutions for tomorrow's world
• Germany has the world's fastest civilian supercomputer