Since Tuesday, Barcelona-based supercomputer MareNostrum has a little Mexican cousin, Leo Átrox. The agenda of Catalan President Salvador Illa in Guadalajara (Mexico) included the signing of a cooperation protocol between the Barcelona Supercomputing Center – National Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS) and the Center for Data Analysis and Supercomputing at the University of Guadalajara (CADS). The two sides will cooperate in the field of research, training and scientific innovation, and the first stop on this trip will be the exchange of graduate students and faculty members.
The difference in the level of maturity and computing power of the two supercomputers is significant, if not very small. In fact, MareNostrum is hundreds of times stronger than Leo Atrox. The Guadalajara machine has a processing capacity of about 500 teraflops of processing power (0.5 petaflops), while the Catalan machine has a sustained processing capacity of 215.4 petaflops, with a goal of reaching 314 petaflops.
Moreover, their fields of work at present are completely different. However, both institutions see spaces for convergence. “We have identified courses of action in Jalisco,” he congratulated president Salvador Illa after participating in the signing of the cooperation agreement. CADS, according to its website, is a regional supercomputing node designed to boost capabilities in the state of Jalisco and surrounding areas, a region considered Mexico’s Silicon Valley. Increasing Leo Atrox’s capabilities is essential to developing an innovation ecosystem around it.
At this point, the older cousin has a great deal of experience to contribute. Marie Nostrum’s ability to perform complex calculations is used in almost all scientific disciplines, from astrophysics to biomedicine. The 72 research groups now using it include projects such as an AIDS vaccine or simulation work for fusion energy production, among others. Its recognition as a leading European center is, in fact, a requirement for the establishment of numerous companies that feed the Catalan scientific ecosystem.
Professor Manuel Valero, Director of BSC-CNS, recalls that the creation of the Ibero-American Supercomputing Committee had been on the table for a decade. After Brazil, the expert who also traveled to Guadalajara continues, the most advanced region in the region is Mexico, although it is still far behind the Catalan infrastructure. He explained, “This requires continuous renewal of machines and joint investment, and a long time ago we stopped investing in them.” This is an issue that the president of the University of Guadalajara, Carla Planter, hopes to solve. During the signing, he stressed that the agreement will help the public center modernize its supercomputing center and in the short term it will become a technological node among public universities in Latin America.
Valero highlights Mexico’s interest in advancing supercomputing. He added that one indicator of this is the number of students, especially from Guadalajara, who passed through Barcelona’s facilities. Of the 300 foreign students and researchers counted during these years, half of them were Mexican. He stressed that “Jalisco is the state with the greatest degree of technological development.”
The head of the University Center for Economic and Administrative Sciences, Mara Robles Villaseñor, defended this roadmap. “Jalisco has a technological system that will allow the university to be the scientific and declarative brain of the government, companies and universities,” he added.
For Valero, the signed collaboration agreement has an impact beyond, say, Mexican postdoctoral students, who can use MareNostrum in their research. Close cooperation between the two entities, as well as the Jalisco government’s interest in investing in CADS, could help advance this original idea for an Ibero-American Supercomputing Commission.