Barcelona has released this Thursday the first quantum supercomputer in Spain with 100 % European technology, located at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center headquarters (BSC). The presentation that has been initially baptized as Marenostrum ONA – although the name is not final – has been in charge of the president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa; of the Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities, Diana Morant; and of the Minister of Digital Transformation and Public Function, Óscar López.
Minister Óscar López has announced, during the presentation act, that his ministry will soon announce the national strategy of quantum technologies, a road map in which he has assured that they are working “intensely”. According to the president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, the first quantum supercomputer located in Barcelona is a bet of the governments of Spain and Catalonia for science and technology.
Illa stressed that this new supercomputer, which complements the Marenostrum 5 with conventional technology, is the result of the BSC, a project of success and collaboration between governments, university and leading private companies. “This is a public and academic framework, here you do toe science, governed technology with public criteria and favor of the common good, it is not at the service of a business,” said the Catalan president, who has underlined the importance of “democratizing science ”.
“Catalonia – added – wants to deploy its potential in technology and innovation, and does not do it against anyone, but in favor of all, of Catalonia, Spain and Europe.” Illa has asked that technology and scientific advances do not disconnect “from humanistic values”, so that they are “at all service, for the common good, and not, for example, to use them to monitor citizens” .
The Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities, Diana Morant, has valued “public science, and the talent and creativity of so many researchers who have worked for many decades.” “The new technologies,” he said, “need a public sector to accompany them and that allocate the necessary investment because, if there is no risk, there is no future.” In this regard, he said that in the last five years the government has allocated 170 million euros to BSC.
Morant has expressed government support to the objective that the Generalitat has been marked that Catalunya is one of the 50 most innovative European regions.
For his part, the Minister of Digital Transformation and Public Function, Óscar López, highlighted as the main objectives of the Quantum Spain project – in which the new quantum supercomputer is framed – “to promote technological sovereignty and promote open science”. He has admitted that quantum technology “is a paradigm change” because it allows complex calculations to be much more efficient than with the traditional technology used so far and explained that “the benefits for science will be huge, since it opens the door to The prediction of diseases, for example. ”
The president of the BSC, Mateo Valero, wanted to highlight the importance of collaboration between administrations and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) and explained that, while in the hardware which is used “There is nothing European”, in supercuantic technology European technology is used.
Born with European technology
The new quantum supercomputer of Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) is funded by Spain and the European Union, and represents an important step towards European strategic autonomy. This system incorporates two complementary quantum technologies (digital and analog), which expands quantum computing capabilities in the European ecosystem.
Digital technology is financed by the Quantum Spain project, while analog technology has the support of the European Commission and the Government of Spain, within the framework of EUROHPC.
The new quantum supercomputer is integrated into Marenostrum 5, taking advantage of the entire hybrid supercomputing infrastructure, which combines traditional and quantum computing.
It is also part of the European Network of large EuroHPC computers, which includes both classical and quantum computing, and is built 100 % with European technology, with a strong involvement of Spanish business fabric.
Both computers will be accessible to any Spanish user through the Spanish Supercomputing (RES) network, and this is something that will facilitate access to quantum computing to researchers and companies in the country.
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