Europe´s Fastest Computer Unveiled in Jülich

05-28-2009: No less than three supercomputers for European research were unveiled in Jülich in a ceremony. The three computers include the supercomputer JUGENE, which with a computing power of one petaflop/s, that is to say a trillion arithmetic operations per second, is currently the fastest computer in Europe.

“The supercomputer JUGENE will secure Europe independent access to a decisive key technology of the 21st century,” said Prof. Dr. Achim Bachem, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Forschungszentrum Jülich and Coordinator of the European Supercomputing Alliance PRACE. PRACE is funded by the EU and will coordinate the creation of a Europe-wide computer infrastructure.

Researchers from all disciplines make use of supercomputers in order to discover how the climate is changing, how proteins are folded in cells, how new semiconductors function or how fuel cells can be improved. Jülich’s approach is to provide a system of complementary computers with a suitable platform for all applications.