Artificial Intelligence and High-Performance Computing: The University of Montpellier Announces the Launch of a New Computing and Cloud Cluster as Part of the 2021–2027 Regional Development Contract (CPER)
At the start of 2024, Philippe Augé, President of the University of Montpellier, announced the upcoming launch of a new computing and cloud cluster, part of which will be specifically dedicated to artificial intelligence (AI). This new digital infrastructure, funded under the State-Region Plan Contract by the State, the Region, the Metropolitan Area, and the University of Montpellier to the tune of €2.56 million (excluding tax), was selected in particular for its energy efficiency. Housed at Cines, it will benefit from a high-quality environment, including new cooling techniques that use 95% warm water.
Numerical computing solutions and the use of big data through artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms are at the heart of today’s scientific and technological advancements. The mesocenter led by the University of Montpellier within the Montpellier Institute of Data Science (ISDM) provides advanced solutions to all scientific communities
As a result, more than 10,000 users and over 400 research laboratories use the ISDM-MESO mesocenter, as well as companies (such as BRLI and Predict Services for environmental risk prediction). Designed to benefit all communities, it is based on a model aimed at striking the right balance between streamlining and sharing equipment on the one hand, and customizing environments on the other. It thus serves not only experts who also use national and international equipment but also non-experts who have very limited access to this type of equipment, which can nevertheless significantly accelerate the production of highly valuable results.
Equipment that offers the best possible balance between performance and environmental impact
With this new equipment, the University of Montpellier—building on its reputation for excellence in research and education—is enhancing its ability to meet the needs of researchers, with a particular focus on minimizing its environmental impact.
Selected and configured under the direction of Alexandre Dehne Garcia, a research engineer at INRAE’s DipSO and the cornerstone of the ISDM-MESO mesocenter alongside Technical Director Jean-Luc Oms, a research engineer at the CNRS (LIRMM – Joint Research Unit Research the University of Montpellier), the future system, acquired from Lenovo—a recognized leader in the HPC sector—will feature approximately 10,000 AMD cores and NVIDIA H100 quad-GPU servers with “full Direct Water Cooling,” 2.8 petabytes of high-performance WekaIO storage, and interconnections via two 200Gb/s networks.
This solution will complement the existing 15-petabyte high-capacity storage system at the mesocenter, which has already been the subject of several partnership agreements with research organizations for widespread use by the scientific community (CIRAD, INRAE, Inserm, IRD).
Projects requiring this infrastructure are widespread in Montpellier, both at the heart of mathematical and computational methods and, in particular, in interdisciplinary projects that utilize algorithms and artificial intelligence methods with a significant impact on the challenges of “Feeding, Healing, and Protecting.” Ranked highly in numerous rankings, and notably second in the world in the Shanghai Ranking’s ecology category, the University of Montpellier thus aims to reconcile scientific excellence with a commitment to reducing its environmental impact.
The equipment will be hosted by Cines, a national organization with three core missions (high-performance computing, long-term data archiving, and hosting), whose capabilities were recently recognized with the arrival of the Adastra supercomputer—the most powerful in France and rankedthird in the world for its low environmental impact on the Green500 list.
In late 2023, Cines secured funding from the Ministry of Higher Education and Research MESR) to upgrade the electrical connections and install a supply of warm water (32°C) to the SM1 machine room, where the new equipment will be housed. This will not only allow for the measurement of the equipment’s actual energy consumption but also significantly reduce the environmental impact by eliminating the need to cool the water to low temperatures, as is currently the case.
“The choice of this equipment reflects our projects,” emphasizes Philippe Augé, President of the University of Montpellier.“It combines excellence and commitment. We did not want to acquire the largest or most ‘technical’ equipment, but rather equipment that allows every scientist to carry out their projects using state-of-the-art technology while balancing the goal of reducing our environmental footprint. “We are aware of the responsibility we bear with each of these major infrastructure purchases and have chosen to invest in line with our commitment, even if that meant sacrificing the machine’s size.”
The commitments and involvement of local communities alongside the University of Montpellier
This order was made possible thanks to the collaborative efforts of all stakeholders in planning the first phase of the 2021–2027 CPER. As a result, the Montpellier Metropolitan Area has released its entire contribution (704,000 euros) for this phase, which represents a commitment –
The Occitanie Region is contributing 900,000 euros toward this project. The Region is closely collaborating with the University of Montpellier on all projects related to the Occitanie Regional Data Center (Drocc), and this equipment will enable the renewal and expansion of Drocc-Est’s service offerings, for which the ISDM serves as the operational hub and lead for all stakeholders in Eastern Occitanie (Drocc-Est HPC Computing Services, Drocc-Est Storage, and Research Cloud Research ).
The government is contributing 606,000 euros to the CPER’s 2022 (300,000 euros) and 2023 (306,000 euros) budgets.
The University of Montpellier, for its part, has invested 350,000 euros in this project and is the main contributor to the mesocenter’s operating costs.