Germany's Karlsruhe Institute of Technology launches HoreKa 2 supercomputer with 33 petaflops, combining AMD Turin CPUs and NVIDIA GB200 GPUs.

The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology's (KIT) HoreKa 2 hybrid supercomputer is now operational at KIT Campus North in Baden-Württemberg, southwestern Germany. The system, manufactured by Lenovo, cost €17 million ($19 million) and will support research across climate, new materials, particle physics, energy, mobility, and artificial intelligence.

HoreKa 2 succeeds the original HoreKa, a 17 petaflops supercomputer that was inaugurated in 2021. The new system delivers a peak performance of 33 petaflops. Its CPU partition uses Lenovo SD665 V3 servers with AMD Epyc 9655 'Turin' processors, while the GPU partition comprises Lenovo ThinkSystem SC777 V4 servers equipped with Nvidia GB200 GPUs, interconnected via Nvidia's NVLink networking technology.

The system includes 250 terabytes of memory and a two-tier storage architecture based on IBM Storage Scale Systems 6000, combining NVMe and HDD tiers. The GPU partition employs Lenovo's Neptune liquid cooling technology, which circulates hot water to enable "particularly energy-efficient operation and free cooling all over the year."

KIT prioritized performance and energy efficiency equally throughout HoreKa 2's development and procurement, resulting in what the university describes as one of the most energy-efficient supercomputers of its performance class globally. The power supply at Campus North is sourced entirely from renewable energy.

"HoreKa 2 strengthens the digital capabilities of KIT and combines cutting-edge research with a clear focus on sustainability. It will allow us to create the conditions necessary to conduct data-intensive research and run modern AI applications in an energy-efficient and sustainable manner," said Professor Kora Kristof, VP of digitalization and sustainability at KIT.

Professor Martin Frank, member of the Board of Directors of the KIT Scientific Computing Center, added: "Researchers from nearly all disciplines will benefit from the new system. With the new system, we are able to double the computing power for simulations and AI applications."

KIT also announced plans to build a dedicated AI data center at Campus North, estimated to cost €24 million ($27.2 million). The facility will serve higher education institutions, government organizations, and researchers.