Current research relies heavily on the ability to perform computationally intensive procedures and simulations that have long since ceased to be possible on normal computers. Science requires supercomputers which, in reality, are powerful network computing infrastructures with hundreds of cores working at the same time and performing simultaneous operations at breakneck speed. The University of Granada (UGR) has launched the supercomputer baptized as Albaicina beast with 822 teraflops of performance – one teraflop is equivalent to one million million operations per second – which, as announced on Tuesday by its rector, Pilar Aranda, is available to more than 125 research groups and 500 scientists from the UGR and the other Andalusian public universities.
The switching on of this new supercomputer, which has involved an investment of just over 1.2 million euros, will allow the scientific community not only to significantly reduce the waiting time for its research, but also to broaden the lines of research that now, by requiring massive data processing, they could not be done at the university in Granada. This is how the rector explained it: “We will reach areas that were previously impossible for us. And not only the UGR but other Andalusian universities, because we want to be an example of university collaboration”. This is not, however, the UGR’s first foray into supercomputing. As detailed by Begoña del Pino Prieto, delegate of the Digital University and professor of Computer Architecture and Technology, the institution originally launched its supercomputing service 30 years ago.
In fact, Albaicin It is the third supercomputer at the UGR and technological progress has allowed a significant increase in power. The new machine multiplies the work speed by 200 compared to the first, from 2007, and by 20 the capacity of the second, from 2013. Jesús Rodríguez Puga, chief computer scientist of the Research and Supercomputing Systems Service of the UGR, has exemplified the working capacity of Albaicin: “The 9,520 cores are capable of reducing extremely complex scientific procedures that could last 25 years to just 24 hours”.
Blanca Biel, a researcher in Atomic Molecular and Nuclear Physics at the UGR, explained that her work in nanotechnology, “which is largely based on simulations of atomic-scale materials, requires very complex calculations that can only be carried out on machines with a great power that until now took three or four weeks to be carried out and that, with Albaicin, they can be completed in less than a day or so.”
Supercomputing and future strategy
Begoña del Pino has pointed out that supercomputing is a “decisive element to promote research, innovation, high-level transfer and specialized training, strategic axes for the UGR”. Enrique Herrera, vice-rector for Research and Transfer and highly cited researcher in Computer Science and Engineering, has stated that “there is no high-level research without research infrastructures that allow increasing the computing capacity and resolution of complex procedures and simulations”.
Herrera believes that this new infrastructure will allow the UGR to face the strategic challenges that have been set and that, in this area, are: “Convert Granada and its university into the headquarters of the National Artificial Intelligence Regulatory Agency, host the IFMIF-DONES project [que busca una nueva fuente de energía para el futuro, inagotable y respetuosa con el medio ambiente] and launch the Center of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence AILab Granada, a joint project of UGR and INDRA that seeks to open up the use of artificial intelligence to the business fabric”.
The vice-rector has also announced that the start-up of Albaicin It is one more step in a supercomputing strategy that aspires to serve, not only national research groups, but also “transfer and innovation to provide computing solutions dedicated to specific problems of society.” “Over time”, he concluded, “we would like to provide supercomputing services to innovative strategies that arise in companies or public institutions that require this type of supercomputer”.
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