Rome, November 9, 2024 - ENEA has introduced a new High Performance Computing (HPC) system named CRESCO8, aimed at enhancing energy research, particularly in nuclear fusion. This infrastructure, provided by Lenovo and developed in collaboration with Intel, will increase the computational capabilities of the existing CRESCO7 supercomputing system at the ENEA Research Center in Portici (Naples).
The CRESCO8 HPC system features reduced energy consumption, utilizing Lenovo's Neptune water cooling technology, which captures up to 98% of the heat produced by the supercomputer, thereby saving energy used for cooling fans.
According to Giovanni Ponti, Head of the ICT Division at ENEA, the new supercomputer represents a significant technological advancement, enhancing computing resources with cutting-edge parallel computing systems that ensure high levels of energy efficiency. CRESCO8 will enable ENEA researchers and their partners to run numerical codes, computational models, simulations, and artificial intelligence algorithms within a next-generation high-performance parallel computing cluster, addressing the new requirements of the scientific community and research projects.
ENEA manages a complex ICT architecture that offers advanced computing, modeling, and 3D data visualization systems, extensively utilizing GRID technologies for supercomputing. This ICT infrastructure includes six research hubs (Frascati, Portici, Bologna, Casaccia, Trisaia, and Brindisi), each equipped with computing and 3D visualization facilities and specialized expertise, supporting R&D activities across various sectors. In the energy sector, ENEA conducts predictive activities that can help identify solutions to enhance the reliability and efficiency of decarbonization processes by leveraging digitalization technologies.