It could be the dream of many video game fans, but it will serve to help science in Portugal go further. Deucalion was inaugurated this Wednesday at the Azurém Campus, of the University of Minho, in Guimarães. The machine, ten times faster than its predecessor, was initially announced for early 2020, then pushed back to early 2022, and even early this year, until it was finally inaugurated. But what is this supercomputer?
Arlindo Oliveira, a professor at the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) and president of the Institute of Systems and Computers, says that “it is a unit that is part of a European effort to increase Europe’s competitiveness in high-performance computing. It is a project that it’s part of a program that’s been around for a long time. It’s not one of the biggest computers in the world, we don’t have the conditions for that, but it’s a high-performance computer that can be used to attack various problems, such as modeling problems numerical, time modeling, logistic optimization, etc”.
This supercomputer should start working next year and will be available to the scientific community. Arlindo Oliveira points out that “physicists and chemists use these computers a lot. They can also be used by people with artificial intelligence. It is an infrastructure that is useful for the scientific community and fortunately we managed to put it into operation now, after years of delay.” when there were no conditions to put it to work. This is the latest machine. I’m not sure where it stands in terms of classification in Europe, probably in the top 30 or 40, and maybe in the top 1,000 globally. It is not a world reference machine, but it is an important machine for the country and for the scientific community”.
Portugal has had other supercomputers in the past, such as Bob, installed in 2019 in Riba de Ave, but which, in terms of capacity, is ten times smaller than Deucalion. Despite not representing a qualitative leap in terms of reference, the installation of this supercomputer means that we are not left behind compared to other countries.
“This supercomputer allows us to remain competitive in areas where, without access to advanced computing, we would risk being left behind. It allows us to keep up with other countries, such as the United States, Japan,” and even in Europe. , whose scientific communities have benefited from these infrastructures. More than a qualitative leap forward, it allows us not to make a qualitative leap backwards”, stresses Arlindo Oliveira.
Even so, the IST professor does not believe that this supercomputer is a decisive factor for scientists to choose our country for research. Arlindo Oliveira reveals that this supercomputer “will surely be a competitive factor in attracting international talent, although, to tell the truth, our biggest challenge is low wages. This helps, but what really helped was a general increase in the value of wages in Portugal, including scientists who may be invited, because one of the reasons why we are less competitive is precisely because of low salaries.”
Deucalion cost about 20 million euros and, according to the person in charge of the infrastructure, João Nuno Ferreira, coordinator of the Scientific Informatics Unit of the Foundation for Science and Technology, the operating costs in the next five years should range between 13 and 15 million euros.
Source: TSF
