Croatia has recently unveiled its most powerful supercomputer to date, named Supek, at a ceremony in Zagreb celebrating the completion of the Croatian Scientific and Educational Cloud (HR-ZOO) project. The project was carried out in partnership with universities in Zagreb, Osijek, Rijeka, Split, the Croatian Research and Academic Network – CARNET, and the Ruđer Bošković Institute. The national infrastructure, HR-ZOO, was designed to enhance research, innovation, and business capacities in science and higher education within Croatia. It is a joint e-infrastructure, comprising five data centers in four different cities, which have been modernized and technologically aligned to provide advanced computing and virtual data center services.
The Advanced Computing service was built on two resources: the high-performance computing resource and the Vrančić cloud computing resource. The first is the petascale computer Supek, realized with HPE Cray technology, which has 8384 processor cores and 81 graphics processors, 32 TB of working memory, and provides 1.25 PFLOPS of power. It is located in a newly built data center on the Borongaj Science and Education Campus of the University of Zagreb. The Supek is intended to provide scientists with a high-end computing environment, allowing for the execution of user applications with high-performance requirements and the capacity of various computer resources, including processor cores, accelerators such as graphics processors, working memory, storage, and network connectivity.
The Vrančić cloud computing resource, which is the second resource, is designed for researchers and scientists requiring adaptable, “elastic” and versatile computing resources that can meet the diverse requirements of various scientific fields. With Vrančić, users can run virtual servers with dedicated processors, a large amount of working memory, or graphics processors optimized for various scientific applications. It enables users to run multiple copies of their software simultaneously on different computers. This allows tasks that would have taken weeks on a single computer to be completed in just a few hours.
The Virtual Data Centers service is intended for institutions in the academic and scientific community. It offers traditional data center capabilities but uses virtual resources instead of physical ones. The service enables institutions to set up additional infrastructure resources according to their needs without purchasing, setting up, configuring, and maintaining physical devices. It provides users with the flexibility, scalability, and cost savings of cloud computing. The resource on which this service is based is named after Andrija Štampar, a multidisciplinary scientist who placed great importance on informing and educating the entire society.
In conclusion, the unveiling of Supek is a significant step for Croatia in developing its scientific and educational infrastructure. The new infrastructure, HR-ZOO, will provide advanced computing and virtual data center services to enhance research and innovation capabilities, as well as business capacities in science and higher education. These services are intended to provide scientists with a high-end computing environment and help institutions to set up additional infrastructure resources without the need for physical devices.
