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6. May 2021
The new technology platform is now being developed in Ostrava and Brno, to help with scientific data processing using the most powerful supercomputers in Europe. The National Supercomputing Center IT4Innovations at the Technical University of Ostrava and Brno-based research centre CEITEC at the Masaryk University have become part of the European IO-SEA project. The goal of this project is to solve the burning storage problem within the next three years with a total budget of €8 million.
The project started in April and is co-financed by the European Union through the Horizon 2020 program and by the European High-Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU). The EuroHPC JU is a joint initiative between the EU, European countries, and private partners to develop a World Class Supercomputing Ecosystem in Europe. This initiative is trying to build a network of European supercomputers and to catch up with the head start of the US, China, and Japan. Ostrava with the new supercomputer under construction becomes a part of this network. The project aims to provide innovative and efficient data management and storage platform for exascale computing. The platform, based on hierarchical storage management and on-demand provisioning of storage services, will efficiently make use of different types of storage.
One of the possible applications of this supercomputer will be the analysis of images from a cryo-electron microscope operated by CEITEC Masaryk University in Brno. The new platform will enable faster evaluation of electron microscope images and will help to reconstruct 3D images of microscopic organic structures. The 3D structures will then enable scientists to decipher possible functions of the observed biological objects. Data from the electron microscope in Brno will be transferred to the IT4Innovations supercomputers in Ostrava and will be processed there. The IO-SEA platform will ensure data transfer as close as possible to the computing nodes. Thanks to this solution, CEITEC MU will be able to obtain research results much faster and further refine imaging.
The IO-SEA is a consortium composed of 10 beneficiaries from 6 European countries including the Czech Republic (FR, DE, UK, IE, CZ, SE), and is coordinated by the French Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA).
More information is in Czech only.
Source: Lupa.cz