CeADAR, Ireland’s Centre for Applied AI will be receiving a new supercomputer named Leon as detailed by Silicon Republic, the Irish Independent, and HPCwire. The HPCwire article points out that we have noted here (and here) that almost all of the top high performance computers in Ireland are owned by private industry and not available to researchers. As of the November 2019 list, one of the top 20 machines is available to Irish researchers – ICHEC’s Kay.
Ricardo Simon Carbajo, CeADAR’s head of innovation and development said: “CeADAR, as the designated digital innovation hub in Ireland for AI, now has the capability to provide a powerful data science computer platform as a shared resource to our industry members and for collaborative projects at national and European level.” Leon will also be available to start-up companies and will help in the creation of new spin-out companies. The supercomputer will be housed at University College Dublin.
It is very encouraging to see a HPC resource being made accessible to entities that otherwise would not be able to avail of this kind of resource, which in many sectors is critical for competitive advantage. Even Michael Dell took notice!