The European supercomputer to be built in Bulgaria will be located in the Sofia Tech Park

17 June 2019

The first petascale supercomputer in Eastern Europe will be positioned in Sofia Tech Park, the company being a lead partner in the project for building of the machine, which will be part of the European network of supercomputers.

The project was presented by the Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, the European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society Maria Gabriel in the presence of Roberto Viola, Director-General of the GD “Connect” in the European Commission, after a meeting in the Council of Ministers.

The supercomputer will be one of the five petascale supercomputers designed to boost the computing power of Europe. The application of the Bulgarian Consortium, with Sofia Tech Park as a leading partner, was approved under the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking procedure, where 8 locations for hosting the supercomputers were selected: 3 pre-exascale and 5 petascale supercomputers. After its construction, Bulgaria will be established as a digital hub in the region.

The main purpose of the supercomputer is to support a number of research and innovation activities, to stimulate the industry based on the use of technology and computing resources. The machine resources can be used in many application areas by a large number of public and private users, including small and medium-sized enterprises at Bulgarian, regional and European level. Bulgaria’s presence in the European network of supercomputers will lead to achievement of advanced results in the medical data analysis for cellular and molecular diagnostic, which will help to select appropriate treatment for cellular level of severe diseases. The system will be optimized to work in a variety of scientific areas including bioinformatics, pharmacy, molecular dynamics and mechanics, quantum chemistry and biochemistry, artificial intelligence and more.

“We want Europe to regain its leadership in the field of innovation and high technology. There are 1 billion Euros of investment in this area in order to be among top three in the world after a year and a half. The supercomputers are not just technology, they are in favor of people mainly because they apply for rapid medical research, they will help for attraction of investments in different sectors, will support the cyber security, as well as the small and medium-sized enterprises. The supercomputer will continue to build our ecosystem” said the EU Commissioner Maria Gabriel. The state financing in the project will amount 12 million Euro, while the whole project is 18 million Euro.

“Huge employment opportunities will be opened for the Bulgarian specialists, which are proven all over the world. Foreign experts will also be able to work, there will be a competition. The machine will work 24 hours a day and will make four million billion operations per second. For the Bulgarian manufacturers this will be of great help, having in mind that will allow tests on construction of bridges, highways and buildings to be made, it will be useful for the building industry as well as for the medicine. The supercomputer is applicable in all spheres. This brings Bulgaria to a new role in the field of innovations, science, and high technologies”, said the Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and stressed that the machine could be used for projects from Eastern Europe, but the Bulgarian scientists and business will have a priority.

“The supercomputer will be as powerful as the NASA computer is and will be the most powerful in Eastern Europe. Its application will be for the people first- they will have an opportunity to better understand many diseases, which today cannot be cured, such as cancer and degenerative diseases. The machine will be from great use not only for the big industry but for the small and medium-sized enterprises, and for the defense as well”, stated Roberto Viola. “The application of the machine will be in the field of environment protection, more successful agriculture, will be used for climate analysis and anticipation of natural phenomena and disasters, which will help to save human lives. It will be a knowledge center and will position Bulgaria at the forefront of technological development”, added Roberto Viola.

The supercomputer should be operational by the end of 2020.

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