New Eurora Supercomputer Sets Energy Efficiency Record

Italy’s Eurora supercomputer, which uses NVIDIA Tesla GPU accelerators based on NVIDIA Kepler, has set a new record for data center energy efficiency.

The Eurora supercomputer, built by Eurotech and deployed at the Cineca facility in Bologna, Italy, reached 3,150 megaflops per watt of sustained performance, a mark 26% higher than the top system on the most recent Green500 list of the world’s most efficient supercomputers, the company said.

Eurora combines 128 high-performance, energy-efficient NVIDIA Tesla K20 accelerators with the Eurotech Aurora Tigon supercomputer, featuring Aurora Hot Water Cooling technology, which uses direct hot water cooling on all electronic and electrical components of the HPC system.

Available to members of the Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE) and major Italian research entities, Eurora will be used across a range of scientific disciplines, including material science, astrophysics, life sciences and Earth.

“Advanced computer simulations that enable scientists to discover new phenomena and test hypotheses require massive amounts of performance, which can consume a lot of power,” said Sanzio Bassini, director of HPC department at Cineca. “Equipped with the ultra-efficient Aurora system and NVIDIA GPU accelerators, Eurora will give European researchers the computing muscle to study all types of physical and biological systems, while allowing us to keep data center power consumption and costs in check.”

The use of Aurora Hot Water Cooling technology reduces or eliminates the need for air conditioning in typically warm climates like Italy. The thermal energy the system produces can be used to heat buildings, drive adsorption chillers for air conditioning or generate tri-generation, the combined production of electricity, heating and cooling.

For more information, visit NVIDIA and Eurotech.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.