CEA and Eviden launch Phase 2 of the EXA1 Supercomputer Program

Designed to meet the needs of the Simulation program run by CEA’s Military Applications Division, the EXA1 HE represents the second and most innovative stage in the EXA1 program, and complements the EXA1 HF (High-Frequency) supercomputer, delivered by Eviden in 2021.

With a peak performance of 104 Petaflops, the system can achieve a Linpack performance of about 60 Petaflops, which is the equivalent of the 15th most powerful supercomputer in the most recent TOP500 ranking from November 2023. Based on Eviden’s BullSequana XH3000 architecture, with a patented warm-water cooling system, the EXA1 HE is equipped with 477 compute nodes based on NVIDIA’s Grace Hopper Superchips.

The system’s interconnect is based on the latest version of Eviden’s BullSequana eXascale Interconnect (BXI) system, which is the only European interconnect technology. The network relies on a DragonFly topology and is composed of 156 switches. This first BXI accelerated computer paves the way for future BXI technologies for exaflop-class and AI systems and will meet the future needs of research and industrial centers worldwide.

EXA1 fulfills the requirements of the defense programs that are implemented at CEA’s Military Applications Division. To be increasingly representative of complex phenomena, the simulation requires a consistent increase in the performance of supercomputers, ensuring that reasonable computing times can be maintained to fulfill the milestones of the government programs and to keep the energy consumption of computing centers under control.

Emmanuel Le Roux, SVP, Global Head of HPC, AI and Quantum at Eviden, Atos Group, said, “We are deeply honored by this contract with the CEA, which is once again showing its confidence in Eviden, by continuing the EXA1 program with the Group’s teams and thus extending a relationship that has lasted for more than 20 years. With its ‘Made in Europe’ high-performance computing systems, such as the BullSequana XH3000 and the BXI interconnect, co-designed with the CEA and produced in its Angers factory, Eviden supports private and public sector organizations, such as CEA’s Military Applications Division, in their European sovereignty challenges, by enabling them to take full advantage of their data while maintaining the highest level of security in all circumstances.”

Jacques-Charles Lafoucriere, Program Director at CEA’s Military Applications Directorate, said, “We are pleased to see the full deployment of this new system. With the first applications having already been run on it through best-in-class accelerated technologies that have also been chosen for Exascale systems, CEA’s Military Applications Division will be able to meet its HPC and AI needs for the future challenges of its Simulation program.”