The University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne (URCA) takes center stage internationally with its new supercomputer ROMEO, 2nd on the GREEN500 and 1st in France.

This ranking highlights high-performance computing systems that offer the best performance per Watt of energy consumed, a crucial measure in the context of contemporary environmental challenges. Note: ROMEO's consumption is slightly lower than the supercomputer ranked #1 but with twice the computing power.

An International Recognition for the ROMEO Computing Center

The ROMEO Regional Computing Center, based in Reims, is establishing itself as a strategic hub for high-performance computing. With 47,328 computing cores, a power of 9.863 PFlop/s (almost 10 million billion calculations per second), and an energy efficiency of 70.9 GFlops/Watt (71 billion calculations are performed for every Watt consumed), the new ROMEO supercomputer competes with the best global infrastructures in terms of computing power. It is based on the cutting-edge BullSequana XH3000 technology, equipped with NVIDIA GH200 Grace Hopper Superchips and NVIDIA QUANTUM-2 InfiniBand connectivity. Its computing power currently places it 6th in France (behind the supercomputers of the Commissariat for Atomic Energy – CEA) and 122nd worldwide.

This technological gem, made in Europe, is designed to reduce its environmental impact through innovative hot water cooling, based on the Direct Liquid Cooling (DLC) technology developed by EVIDEN, the French supercomputer manufacturer.

A Sustainable and Ambitious Strategy at URCA

This success is part of a resolutely proactive sustainability policy at URCA. Committed to a Sustainable Development and Social Responsibility (SDSR) strategy, the university affirms its commitment to reducing the environmental impact of its activities while addressing contemporary climate, social, and societal challenges.

Christophe Clément, president of the university, emphasizes with conviction: “With this state-of-the-art equipment, we are propelling research into new horizons, meeting the growing demands of high-performance computing and the increasingly strong needs for Artificial Intelligence in the Grand Est region. But our ambition doesn’t stop there: we must leave future generations a preserved and sustainable planet. It is our collective responsibility.”

A Supercomputer Serving Research and Innovation

The previous ROMEO supercomputer enabled over 250 scientific projects in diverse fields such as chemistry, biochemistry, health, engineering sciences, and many others. ROMEO will continue to be a key tool for research in a virtuous way. ROMEO’s technological choices position it as a pioneer in new hardware architectures for computing and Artificial Intelligence, providing a competitive advantage to researchers at URCA and in the Grand Est region, as well as to students who have access to ROMEO for their training.

Committed Partners for a Large-Scale Project

This ambitious project would not have come to fruition without the support of the State, the Grand Est Region, the European Union through FEDER funds, the Grand Reims, and many academic and industrial partners.

By participating in European initiatives such as EUMaster4HPC and eDIH Grand-Est, URCA demonstrates its ability to establish itself as a major player in high-performance computing in Europe while fostering local, national, and international collaborations.

The inauguration of the ROMEO supercomputer (currently in preparation) will take place in early 2025, providing the community with an opportunity to discover this exceptional machine.