tenerife atlantic supercomputing centre

Tenerife to build Atlantic supercomputing centre

Tenerife set for Atlantic supercomputing centre

Tenerife is to gain an Atlantic Supercomputing Centre, an ambitious €10 million infrastructure project that will rank among Spain’s five fastest computers and the 500 most powerful in the world. Two supercomputers, nicknamed Teide and Anaga, are already working at full capacity at the ITER facilities. Soon, a third machine will be added, tripling the island’s storage capacity and turning the archipelago into a technology benchmark.

What the new supercomputer will do

This expansion will not only process and store large volumes of data quickly and securely, but will also attract talent and open the door to high-tech applications, particularly in artificial intelligence. The new facility, the result of a public-private partnership between the Tenerife Cabildo and the German company Bechtle, will save researchers and businesses a great deal of time. It can resolve scientific and technical processes that currently take months or even years in just a few hours.

The infrastructure will function as a giant brain, integrating advanced supercomputing technology, artificial intelligence and high-capacity cloud storage into a single platform. To give an idea of its scale, it has the computing power of 450 eight-core computers working simultaneously and the same storage capacity as 10,000 computers. The new supercomputer, designed as a technological bridge between continents, will feature more than 3,000 processors, GPU acceleration, ultra-low-latency flash storage and 5 PB of capacity for scientific computing, generative artificial intelligence, digital twins and sovereign cybersecurity.

‘Anticipating the future’

During the presentation of the new centre, the president of the Tenerife Cabildo, Rosa Dávila, said the aim was to anticipate the future. “Tenerife will be among the most advanced supercomputing infrastructures in all of Spain, becoming a reference point in the Atlantic and in areas of Macaronesia,” she added. The first phase of the project, backed by €5.5 million, is expected to take six months to complete once it is awarded in the coming days. The overall project allows for a maximum of five years and four phases of development, divided into improvements in supercomputing, storage and associated services.

Boosting research and new industries

The new Atlantic Supercomputing Centre will open the door to advanced applications in artificial intelligence, complex simulations, massive data analysis and digital solutions with a direct impact on research, innovation and public services. The initial aim is to boost research centres in Tenerife and across the Canary Islands. The University of La Laguna (ULL), the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the Institute of Astrophysics and even the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC) will be able to use this new infrastructure. However, beyond giving a boost to science in the islands, it will also open up to new sectors such as the audiovisual industry, genomics and aerospace.

Technological sovereignty

The Cabildo’s Councillor for Innovation, Juanjo Martínez, explained that Tenerife will position itself as a territory that not only consumes technology, but also develops it. “This initiative will give us technological sovereignty and allow us to generate opportunities in terms of businesses, jobs and development for our most highly skilled young people,” he said. Meanwhile, the manager of the Institute of Technology and Renewable Energies (ITER), Carlos Suárez, highlighted that Tenerife has been working in the field of supercomputing since 2013, first with the Teide HPC system and later with the Anaga HPC centre. Now, with the new expansion, a supercomputer based on a hybrid model combining conventional processors (CPU) and high-performance graphics cards (GPU) will be introduced. “This new machine will allow us to maintain our capabilities in science and research, but also make a very important leap in artificial intelligence,” he stressed.

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