Hewlett Packard Enterprise Builds Next-Generation 100% Direct Liquid Cooled Supercomputer at the Leibniz Supercomputing Center

The Leibniz Supercomputing Center (LRZ) of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities has commissioned Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE: HPE) to build its next high-performance computer, called “Blue Lion”. From 2027 on, Blue Lion will support cutting-edge research in Bavaria and, as a system of the Gauss Center for Supercomputing (GCS), will also be used for outstanding national science projects. The contracts were signed on December 13, 2024. The total costs of 250 million euros (1) are shared by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts (StMWK).

Flexible architecture for different applications

The architecture of the new high-performance computer is designed to execute and combine classic workflows from modeling and simulation with artificial intelligence (AI) methods. More and more researchers are relying on surrogate models for their modelling of flows, turbulence or climate events, for which classic simulation calculations are combined with pattern recognition or statistical data analysis. This allows them to calculate more scenarios in less time or expand models with more complex calculations.

To support these workflows, Blue Lion leverages next-generation HPE Cray technology featuring next-generation accelerators and processors from NVIDIA. The system will also deliver fast data transfers between Blue Lion’s compute and storage units through HPE Slingshot, a high-performance interconnect that transfers 400 gigabits of data per second and allows jobs to scale across the entire system. LRZ will also gain purpose-built system management capabilities with HPE Performance Cluster Management, a software management tool that allows LRZ to efficiently monitor and manage the great scale of the supercomputer. With the latest cutting-edge technologies, Blue Lion gains more performance and scale to deliver approximately 30X more computing power (2), compared to SuperMUC-NG, the current LRZ high-performance computer.

New programming needed

The interaction of GPU accelerators and CPU cores in high-performance computers such as Blue Lion requires a new way of programming software and algorithms. This is enabled by the HPE Cray Programming Environment, which helps migrate science code to the new system. To enable users to use the accelerated hardware of the supercomputer efficiently, LRZ and HPE will offer workshops and courses starting in 2025, helping researchers to optimize and port their applications. In addition, LRZ plans to closely cooperate with the European team from Hewlett Packard Labs, and LRZ will also increase its support team by 50 percent by the time Blue Lion goes into operation.