The computing power of the French supercomputer Jean Zay has increased fourfold in a recent upgrade to 125.9 million billion calculations per second (125.9 petaflops). Such new capabilities will be a game-changer in scientific research, especially in the field of artificial intelligence.
The computing power of the French supercomputer Jean Zay has increased fourfold in a recent upgrade to 125.9 million billion calculations per second (125.9 petaflops). Such new capabilities will be a game-changer in scientific research, especially in the field of artificial intelligence.
Jean Zay is the successor to the Turing supercomputer and was put into operation in 2019. Since then, it has undergone several expansions, and a recent upgrade makes it one of the most powerful in France and Europe, writes Interesting Engineering.
The number of AI projects on Jean Zay increased from 72 in 2019 to over 1,400 in 2024, highlighting its role in the development of artificial intelligence in Europe.
Jean Zay 4 will continue to be a national resource of France and will be available free of charge for open research to academic teams, startups, and large companies.
"If all of humanity calculated at a speed of one operation per second, it would take 182 days to calculate what the Jean Zay supercomputer can do in one second," the CNRS press release states.
The supercomputer's memory capacity has also increased, reaching around 100 petabytes.
In addition to its computing power, Jean Zay is known for its energy efficiency, thanks to the use of graphics processing units (GPUs) from Nvidia and a next-generation warm water cooling system developed by Eviden.
The waste heat from the supercomputer is recovered and used to heat 1,500 households on the Plateau de Saclay, near Paris.
Recall that last week, Musk's supercomputer Colossus reached full capacity and now consumes up to 300 MW, like a metropolis.
