The infrastructure is managed by Cineca and will guarantee 80% of Italy’s computing
In the presence of the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, Leonardo, the European super computer based at the Tecnopolo di Bologna, was inaugurated. Classified as the fourth most powerful super computer in the world and intended for research projects, scientific and academic use and industrial applications, Leonardo will provide 80% of Italy’s and 20% of Europe’s computing power. But that’s not all: it will contribute to the mitigation and management of risks due to extreme situations, natural events, earthquakes, volcanic events, and flash floods, and in the fight against pandemic situations and epidemics.
The inauguration ceremony was attended by the President of the Emilia-Romagna Region, Stefano Bonaccini, Mayor Matteo Lepore; the Minister for Universities and Research, Anna Maria Bernini; Francesco Ubertini, President of Cineca, which manages the infrastructure; and the European Commission’s Director General for Communication Networks, Content and Technology, Roberto Viola. The project is part of the actions the European Union is implementing to support the deployment of HPC as a vector of innovation. It is no coincidence that 50% of the computing power generated by Leonardo is available to Italian research institutes and universities, while European researchers will use the rest.
European Weather Centre
The Data Centre of the European Weather Centre for medium-term forecasts is already in operation at the Tecnolopolo in Bologna, and soon the Italian Weather Agency, the International Big Data and Artificial Intelligence Foundation for Human Development (iFab), laboratories, research centres such as Infn, Cineca and CNR will also move there, for a total of around 1,500 new researchers from all over the world. The supercomputer is one of three pre-exascale systems of the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU).
The project is part of the actions the European Union is implementing to support the spread of High Performance Computing as a driving force for growth and innovation. In fact, 50 per cent of the computing power generated by Leonardo will be available to Italian research institutes and universities; European researchers will use the rest. The pre-production phase of the supercomputer has already begun. The LEAP call (Leonardo early access program) is aimed at projects with a high scientific impact, capable of exploiting an extremely wide availability of computational resources. Researchers from all fields of science, industry and the public sector can submit their proposals, regardless of nationality. Selected projects will have access to the system from January 2023. Leonardo will become fully operational for users at the end of March 2023.
