Swiss supercomputing chief advocates overseas relocation of data centre

The supercomputer Alps at the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) of federal technology institute ETH Zurich. The Alps supercomputer is equipped with over 10,000 Grace Hopper superchips and can be used for applications in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) to support a wide range of areas such as climate, environment, robotics and medicine. Keystone/gaetan Bally

According to the head of the Swiss high-performance data centre, computing capacity is to be relocated abroad.

Switzerland needs to focus its local resources on innovative pilot projects, said Thomas Schulthess, Head of the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS), in an interview with the SonntagsZeitung newspaper. “We will never operate data centres in Switzerland with a capacity of several hundred megawatts like the leading tech companies such as Microsoft or Google.”

According to Schulthess, Northern Europe is a good place to outsource local computing capacities: “Finland, Norway and Sweden have large hydroelectric power reserves far away from the cities, which are already installed and used to supply mines or paper mills with electricity. Switzerland should help to make the electricity infrastructure in northern Europe more usable for scientific computing.”

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Together with Finland, a consortium called “Lumi” (Large Unified Modern Infrastructure) has already been set up, which comprises ten countries, says Schulthess. Under its leadership, a data centre has been set up in a former Finnish paper factory. “The location is perfect and it’s cost-effective. The factory building and the associated power generation and cooling infrastructure were already in place,” says Schulthess. “There should be more projects like this. But since Switzerland withdrew from the negotiations on the framework agreement with the EU, Lumi’s umbrella organisation, which is controlled by the EU, has been badgering us but we can no longer play our full part.”

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Such an expansion of Swiss computing capacity is necessary because the demand for electricity is increasing, says Schulthess: “It’s not just AI and high-performance computers that need large amounts of electricity, but also mobility, which is increasingly switching from combustion engines to electric motors. For us as a society, this means that we have to think about how we can solve the problems associated with the increasing demand for electricity.”

Translated from German by DeepL/amva

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