PARIS, Oct. 10, 2018 — Atos, global leader in digital transformation, and ROMEO, the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne’s supercomputing center, announce the inauguration of their new supercomputer ROMEO. This supercomputer, a BullSequana X1000 from Atos, is ranked amongst the most-powerful supercomputers worldwide. It is in the TOP500 and 20th in the GREEN500 ranking.

The University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne today announces the availability of its new supercomputer Romeo, under sponsorship of renown French mathematician and Fields Medal laureate Cédric Villani, in the presence of representatives from Atos, CEA DAM, GENCI and NVIDIA.

With a peak performance of 1 petaflop/s (a million billion operations per second), equipped with some of the most powerful processors on the market and the latest Telsa graphic processors from NVIDIA, this supercomputer provides an architecture which brings together digital simulation with Artificial Intelligence.

The supercomputer uses Atos’ BXI (Bull eXascale Interconnect) which offers performance, scalability, efficiency, reliability and quality of service for extreme workloads. It will enable both academic organisations and industry players to take advantage of a vast computing power for their digital simulation projects and to develop applications using the latest advances in Artificial Intelligence and high-performance data analytics.

Villani recent authored a report on Artificial Intelligence, at the request of the French government, and this new supercomputer is fully in-line with France’s national strategy to become a leader in AI. The supercomputer is focused on the four priority sectors identified for the development of artificial intelligence: health, transport, environment and defense.

ROMEO is a real opportunity to innovative locally. The supercomputer is already being used by academic and industry researchers, who are using this supercomputer in areas of agriculture, banking and the automobile sector.

“We are very proud of the launch of this supercomputer at the University Centre of Champagne Ardennes” says Pierre Barnabé, Chief Operating Officer, Big Data & Security at Atos. “This installation confirms the strategic engagement of the Atos Group in R&D in scientific computing. The BullSequana supercomputer brings a level of power that is needed by the digital simulation projects of the University and it also offers the necessary functionalities for the convergence of Artificial Intelligence and scientific computing, which the URCA requested.”

NVIDIA congratulates the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne on its new supercomputer ROMEO which broadens its strong partnership, which has been well-established for many years.

“Built on the foundations of our longstanding partnership with the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne, the new supercomputer ROMEO will enable researchers to shape the world of tomorrow using high-performance computing and AI,”says Jaap Zuiderveld, VP Europe at NVIDIA. “The ROMEO installation is complemented by URCA’s new master CHPS and the courses at the NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute offered at the University, which will enable a new generation of AI researchers to prosper.”

“This new supercomputer is positioned at the heart of the digital Sciences and Engineering Division developed by our university. Thanks to the high-performance computing and simulation, this supercomputer enables us to achieve results, which were unimaginable a few years ago. ROMEO now is part of solving complex problems in the fields of Industry 4.0, bio-economy, energy, climate, health, materials and technological transformations by associating academic and industrial research ». said Guillaume Garraway, president of the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne.

The supercomputer is financed by: FEDER (2 633 333 €), La Région Grand Est (1 000 000 €), the French government (633 333 €), Le Grand Reims (500 000 €) and the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne (500 000 €).

About Atos

Atos is a global leader in digital transformation with approximately 100,000 employees in 73 countries and annual revenue of around € 12 billion. European number one in Big Data, Cybersecurity, High Performance Computing and Digital Workplace, the Group provides Cloud services, Infrastructure & Data Management, Business & Platform solutions, as well as transactional services through Worldline, the European leader in the payment industry. With its cutting-edge technologies, digital expertise and industry knowledge, Atos supports the digital transformation of its clients across various business sectors: Defense, Financial Services, Health, Manufacturing, Media, Energy & Utilities, Public sector, Retail, Telecommunications and Transportation. The Group is the Worldwide Information Technology Partner for the Olympic & Paralympic Games and operates under the brands Atos, Atos Consulting, Atos Worldgrid, Bull, Canopy, Unify and Worldline.

Source: Atos