The Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) has officially unveiled its Alps supercomputer.
The 270 petaflops machine is based on HPE Cray EX254n architecture and contains 10,752 Grace Hopper Superchips. It was ranked sixth on the most recent edition of the Top500 list of the world’s fastest supercomputers.
When fully expanded, Alps is expected to have a maximum performance of half an exaflop. Details about the expansion are expected to be announced in November 2024.
The system will be made available to the Swiss scientific community, including MeteoSuisse which will use the supercomputer to power its weather prediction model, giving it a much higher resolution that the federal office says better reflects the complex topography of Switzerland.
“Alps is an expression of our vision of a future characterized by knowledge and progress,” said Federal Councillor Guy Parmelin in his speech at the machine’s launch, explaining that the new research infrastructure is the result of the combined efforts of the confederation, cantons, and communes of Switzerland.
Andreas Krause, who heads the AI Centre at the ETH Zurich University, added, “Alps makes it possible to train complex AI models for important applications, for example, in medicine and climate research.”
