MareNostrum
| Company type | Supercomputer |
|---|---|
| Industry | High-performance computing |
| Founded | April 12, 2005 |
| Headquarters | Barcelona , Spain |
| Products | Supercomputing services for scientific research |
MareNostrum (, ) stands as the flagship supercomputer at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, recognized as Spain’s most powerful system and integrated within both the Spanish Supercomputing Network and the European PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe) infrastructure.
Running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, MareNostrum occupies an area of 180 m². It facilitates scientific investigations across diverse fields such as human genome research, protein analysis, astrophysical modeling, meteorological forecasting, geological simulations, and pharmaceutical development. The system began operations on 12 April 2005, serving research communities domestically and internationally.
Its name derives from the ancient Roman designation for the Mediterranean Sea, and it is installed inside the deconsecrated Chapel Torre Girona at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia in Barcelona.
MareNostrum 5
In July 2019, the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking designated the Barcelona Supercomputing Center to host a pre-exascale supercomputer as part of the European Commission’s initiative to build a high-performance computing network. Although initially scheduled to be operational by December 2020, its deployment was postponed until December 2023. MareNostrum 5 will serve as an experimental platform dedicated to advancing European supercomputing technologies and will operate on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
MareNostrum 4
MareNostrum 4 is distinguished by its highly heterogeneous architecture, making it one of the most architecturally diverse supercomputers worldwide. It delivers a peak computing power of 13.7 petaflops and incorporates five storage racks with a combined capacity of 14 petabytes. All components are connected through a high-speed Omni-Path network.
The system architecture is divided into two primary segments: a general-purpose section and an emerging technologies section.
The general-purpose segment consists of 48 racks housing 3,456 Lenovo ThinkSystem SD530 compute nodes. Each node contains two Intel Xeon Platinum processors with 24 cores per chip, amounting to a total of 165,888 cores and 390 terabytes of RAM. This configuration achieves a peak performance of 11.15 petaflops—approximately ten times greater than that of MareNostrum 3—while increasing energy consumption by only 30%, reaching 1.3 MW.
The emerging technologies segment includes clusters built around innovative processors developed in the United States and Japan, aimed at progressing toward pre-exascale computing:
- A cluster integrating IBM POWER9 processors and NVIDIA Volta GPUs, delivering over 1.5 petaflops, comparable to the Summit and Sierra supercomputers commissioned by the US Department of Energy.
- A cluster featuring AMD Rome CPUs combined with AMD Radeon Instinct MI50 accelerators, providing approximately 0.52 petaflops, similar to the Frontier system planned for Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
- A prototype cluster utilizing 64-bit ARMv8 processors inspired by Japan’s Post-K supercomputer architecture, delivering more than 0.65 petaflops.
This modular design allows BSC to evaluate cutting-edge technologies and explore their potential integration into future versions of MareNostrum.
MareNostrum 4’s disk storage capacity totals 14 petabytes and is linked to BSC’s extensive big data infrastructure offering an additional 24.6 petabytes. The system maintains connectivity with European academic and research institutions through the RedIRIS and GÉANT networks.
MareNostrum 3
MareNostrum 3 was composed of 3,056 IBM iDataPlex DX360M4 compute nodes, delivering a total of 48,896 Intel Sandy Bridge cores operating at 2.6 GHz, alongside 84 Xeon Phi 5110P processors housed within 42 nodes. The configuration included 36 racks dedicated to computational tasks, each rack containing 1,344 cores and equipped with 2,688 GB of memory. Every rack consisted of 84 IBM iDataPlex dx360 M4 nodes paired with four Mellanox 36-port Managed FDR10 InfiniBand Switches, arranged within a 2U chassis featuring two columns of 42 units.
The architecture employed a high-speed, low-latency InfiniBand FDR10 network to facilitate communication between nodes, interconnected through fiber optic cabling and Mellanox 648-port FDR10 InfiniBand Core Switches. Supplementary connectivity was provided via a conventional local area network utilizing Gigabit Ethernet adapters.
MareNostrum 2
Its predecessor incorporated 2,560 IBM BladeCenter JS21 nodes powered by PowerPC 970MP processors and featured a total system memory capacity of 20 TB.
Research areas
MareNostrum 4 enables research across multiple disciplines such as climate modeling, biomechanics, and Big Data analytics.
Atmospheric composition
Research efforts concentrate on air quality simulation to pinpoint pollution origins and predict pollution episodes. Studies also investigate the effects of aerosols on solar radiation and atmospheric dynamics. Additional projects aim to enhance smart city initiatives by improving transportation systems and promoting public health.
Big data
Focus is placed on human-computer interaction as well as the creation of visual and computational tools designed for processing extensive datasets.
Bioinformatics
Key projects involve the integration, storage, and transmission of large volumes of clinical and simulation-related information.
Biomechanics
Simulations are conducted targeting cardiovascular and respiratory systems to support advancements in biomedical sciences.
Climate prediction
Services provided include support for agriculture management, water resource planning, oceanic forecasting, tropical cyclone analysis, and optimization of wind turbine locations.
Cloud computing
Current priorities emphasize energy informatics alongside strategies for enhancing data center efficiency.
Education
Research explores methodologies aimed at elevating educational effectiveness.
Engineering simulations
Applications encompass reducing emissions from pollutants, drug development processes, and fluid mechanics calculations.
Geophysics
Work involves simulating seismic activity, detecting subsurface fluids, and analyzing surface properties.
Social simulations
Studies focus on cultural evolution patterns, energy conservation, public safety measures, and the advancement of smart, resilient urban environments.