Artificial intelligence and high-performance computing: the University of Montpellier announces the arrival of a new computing and cloud cluster as part of the 2021-2027 CPER (State-Region Economic Partnership Contract).
At the start of 2024, Philippe Augé, President of the University of Montpellier, announced the upcoming arrival of a new computing and cloud cluster, part of which will be specifically dedicated to artificial intelligence (AI). This new digital equipment, funded as part of the State-Region Plan Contract by the State, the Region, the Metropolis, and the University of Montpellier to the tune of €2.56 million excluding tax, was chosen in particular for its energy efficiency. Housed at Cines, it will benefit from a very high-quality environment, including new cooling techniques using 95% warm water.
Numerical computing solutions and the exploitation of big data using artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms are at the heart of current scientific and technological advances. The mesocenter run by the University of Montpellier within the Montpellier Institute of Data Science (ISDM) provides advanced solutions to all scientific communities.
More than 10,000 users and over 400 research laboratories use the ISDM-MESO mesocenter, as do companies (such as BRLI and Predict Services for environmental risk prediction). Designed to benefit all communities, it is based on a model that aims to strike the right balance between rationalization and pooling of equipment on the one hand, and customization of environments on the other. It thus serves not only experts who also use national and international equipment, but also non-experts who have very little access to this type of equipment, which can nevertheless significantly accelerate the production of highly valuable results.
Equipment offering the best possible compromise between performance and environmental impact
With this equipment, the University of Montpellier, renowned for its research and excellence in education, is strengthening its ability to meet the needs of researchers, with a particular focus on minimizing environmental impact.
Selected and configured under the direction of Alexandre Dehne Garcia, research engineer at INRAE's DipSO and acting as the cornerstone of the ISDM-MESO mesocenter alongside technical director Jean-Luc Oms, research engineer at CNRS (LIRMM – Joint Research Unit Research the University of Montpellier), the future machine, purchased from Lenovo, a recognized player in the world of HPC, will contain some 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 with two networks at 200 Gb/s each.
This solution will be backed by the recognized high-quality 15 petabyte mass storage solution already in place at the mesocenter, which has been the subject of several partnership agreements with research organizations for mass use by scientific communities (CIRAD, INRAE, Inserm, IRD).
Projects requiring this infrastructure are very common in Montpellier, both in the field of mathematics and computer science, but also particularly in projects involving algorithms and artificial intelligence methods that have a significant impact on the challenges of "Feeding, Caring for, and Protecting" people. Ranked highly in numerous rankings, including second in the world in the Shanghai thematic ranking on ecology, the University of Montpellier aims to combine scientific excellence with a commitment to reducing its environmental impact.
The equipment will be housed at Cines, a national player with three missions (high-performance computing, long-term archiving, and hosting), whose expertise was recently recognized with the arrival of the Adastra supercomputer, the most powerful in France and rankedthird in the world for its low environmental impact in the Green 500.
At the end of 2023, Cines obtained funding from the Ministry of Higher Education and Research MESR) to reinforce the electrical supply and to enable the supply of warm water (32°C) to the SM1 machine room, where the new equipment will be housed. This will not only enable the actual consumption of the equipment to be measured, but also significantly reduce the environmental impact by no longer cooling 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 didn't want to acquire the largest or most 'technical' equipment, but rather equipment that would enable each scientist to carry out their projects with state-of-the-art equipment while reconciling the desire to reduce our environmental footprint. We are aware of the responsibility we have with each of these purchases of very large infrastructure and have chosen to invest in line with our commitment, even if this has been at the expense of the size of the machine."
The commitments and involvement of local authorities alongside the University of Montpellier
This order was made possible thanks to the mobilization of all stakeholders to plan the first phase of the 2021-2027 CPER (State-Region Partnership Contract). As a result, Montpellier Métropole released its entire contribution (€704,000) for this phase, which constitutes a commitment –
The Occitanie Region is contributing €900,000 to this order. The Region is working closely with the University of Montpellier on all projects related to the Occitanie Regional Data Center (Drocc), and this equipment will enable the renewal and strengthening of the Drocc-Est service offering, for which the ISDM is the operational center and leader for all stakeholders in Eastern Occitanie (Drocc-Est HPC computing services, Drocc-Est storage, and Research cloud Research ).
The State is contributing €606,000 to the CPER's 2022 (€300,000) and 2023 (€306,000) programs.
The University of Montpellier has invested €350,000 in this order and is the main contributor to the mesocenter's hosting costs.