Cutting-edge research is often dependent on the top performance of supercomputers. Several Austrian universities – including Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) – have been running the Vienna Scientific Cluster (VSC) for several years, which provides them with this computing power. With the MUSICA project, a further supercomputer cluster is now to be added and the available performance vastly increased. The fastest supercomputers in Austria have so far achieved a combined performance of 5.01 petaflops – the new cluster will provide 40 petaflops, making it one of the most powerful systems in the world. The supercomputer cluster is specially designed for large data analyses and data-intensive calculations, such as artificial intelligence training or the application of AI-supported investigation methods to research questions.
‘Cutting-edge research in the field of data analysis and artificial intelligence requires more and more computing power, which is why we are delighted that TU Graz is part of the MUSICA project,’ says Horst Bischof, Rector of TU Graz. ‘No area of modern research will be able to do without artificial intelligence and therefore without access to supercomputing resources. MUSICA once again demonstrates the excellent cooperation between the participating universities. We will all benefit from this in the international competition for high-impact projects.’
Enormous increase in performance
The computing power will be achieved through decentralised hardware, which will be located in Vienna, Innsbruck and Linz. For the first time, MUSICA will rely on a combination of high-performance and cloud computing. Although all three locations are configured and managed centrally, completely autonomous operation is also possible, thus making the system reliable and resilient to disruptions and problems. In Vienna alone, the MUSICA hardware is equipped with over 112 GPU and 72 CPU nodes. Innsbruck and Linz each have over 80 GPU and 48 CPU nodes. The hardware comes from Lenovo, and the memory from MEGWARE.
The installation is already being carried out in Vienna, and Linz and Innsbruck will follow suit at the beginning of 2025. Regular operation is scheduled to start in January or July 2025.
The MUSICA project is funded as part of the European Union's Recovery and Resilience Plan and the Quantum Austria research initiative, with additional funding coming from the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF) through the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG).
MUSICA is also a central part of a fully integrated, hybrid infrastructure for quantum and HPC computing. The University of Innsbruck is currently procuring a new quantum computer that will be connected to MUSICA in the future in order to further accelerate the system. A proof of concept with the existing local systems has already been successfully implemented.
Environmentally friendly top performance
The extensive system is cooled using water. The waste heat is subsequently used to heat neighbouring buildings or to be fed into the district heating system.
