Euro-fusion.org 14th September 2016
Marconi-Fusion, the new High Performance Computer (HPC) for fusion applications, was inaugurated at the CINECA headquarters in Bologna on 14 September 2016.
The goal of this system will be to provide a common HPC platform for European fusion researchers. In 2015, EUROfusion’s highest decision-making body, the General Assembly, selected Italian Research Unit ENEA along with CINECA, to develop and run the new system. CINECA, an Italian non-profit consortium which has set up Marconi-Fusion, hosts the supercomputer.
Supercomputing is an important aspect of nuclear fusion research as it plays a crucial role in the modeling of the plasma and materials, validating the experimental results of fusion devices and for designing the next-generation fusion machine DEMO. ‘Marconi Fusion’ is set to provide European fusion researchers the supercomputing services that were previously provided by HELIOS located in the International Fusion Energy Centre in Rokkasho, Japan.
Tony Donné, Programme Manager of EUROfusion, who was at the inauguration said that the supercomputer has been aptly named after Guglielmo Giovanni Marconi, the famous inventor of wireless communication, who was born in Bologna in 1874. Presidents of ENEA and CINECA Federico Testa and Emilio Ferrari, respectively, were also at the Marconi-Fusion inauguration ceremony.