The brand-new supercomputer Olivia debuts on two prestigious international rankings: Green500, which measures energy efficiency, and TOP500, which ranks the world's fastest supercomputers.
The rankings were announced on Tuesday during the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC25) in Hamburg.
Impressive debut on Green500
Olivia achieved an impressive 22nd place on the Green500 list, which ranks supercomputers based on their energy efficiency (measured in FLOPS per watt). German JEDI is ranked #1.
This reflects Olivia's focus on sustainability, with advanced water cooling and new technology that significantly reduces energy consumption. Olivia uses more than 30% less power than its predecessor, Betzy, despite being 3,7 times more powerful.
—Water cooling is far more efficient than air cooling, reducing the need for fans and traditional cooling systems. Additionally, the technology helps recycle heat, saving energy and lowering operational costs, says Stein Inge Knarbakk, senior project manager and responsible for Olivia's procurement at Sigma2.
Ranking on TOP500 of the world's fastest supercomputers
Olivia is Norway's most powerful supercomputer, ranking 117th on the TOP500 list. American El Capitan is ranked #1.
By comparison, Betzy debuted at 56th place in 2020. The ranking is based on the "LINPACK benchmark," which measures performance in specific mathematical operations. The test favours GPU-based systems like Olivia but does not capture the machine's full capacity or its ability to handle more diverse tasks like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and scientific simulations suited for GPUs.
—TOP500 provides an important indication of performance, but doesn't tell the whole story about capacity for modern workloads like AI and advanced simulations. And here, Olivia is highly competitive, says Knarbakk.
Sustainability leads the way in future computing technology
Olivia is part of Norway's commitment to sustainable supercomputing, in the same spirit as the European supercomputer LUMI, one of the world's most powerful and energy-efficient systems. Norway co-owns LUMI through Sigma2 and EuroHPC. LUMI debuted in 2022 in 1st place on Green500 and 3rd place on TOP500. As newer machines with even more powerful technology take over the top spots, LUMI has now dropped to 36th place and 9th place, respectively.
—LUMI and Olivia demonstrate that modern supercomputers not only provide more raw computing power but also more energy-efficient systems than before. Supercomputers require a lot of power, posing both economic and environmental challenges. Therefore, energy efficiency is more important than ever to reduce the climate footprint while meeting the growing demand for high performance, says Knarbakk.
Olivia has not yet opened for Norwegian researchers but is installed and under testing at Lefdal Mine Data Centers (LMD). In addition to its unique and highly secure location inside a decommissioned mining system in Western Norway, LMD is known for its sustainable operation with 100% renewable energy and cooling from seawater, resulting in a very low climate footprint.