Atos announces first UK delivery of its new Bull sequana supercomputer

Installed at research facility Hartree Centre to enable closer collaboration between academic and industry organisations

Paris, London, 20^th January 2017 - Atos, a leader in digital transformation, announces the first installation of its Bull sequana X1000 new-generation supercomputer system, in the UK at the Hartree Centre. Founded by the UK government, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Hartree Centre is a high performance computing and data analytics research facility. The world's most efficient supercomputer, Bull sequana, is an exascale-class computer capable of processing a billion billion operations per second while consuming 10 times less energy than current systems.

This major collaboration between Atos and the Centre focuses on various initiatives aimed at addressing the UK Government's Industrial Strategy which encourages closer collaboration between academia and industry. It includes:

• The launch of a new UK based High Performance Computing (HPC) as a Service Offering (HPCaaS), which enables both large and small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) to take advantage of extreme computing performance through easily accessible Cloud portals. Improving SME access to such tools encourages and supports high-tech business innovation across the UK.
• 'Deep Learning' as a service (DLaaS); an emerging cognitive computing technique with broad applicability from automated voice recognition to medical imaging. The technology can be used, for example, to automatically detect anomalies in mammography scans with a higher degree of accuracy than the human eye.

The new supercomputer will allow both academic and industry organisations to use the latest technology and develop applications using the most recent advances in artificial intelligence and high performance data analytics. As such, the Bull sequana system will aid Hartree to become the 'go-to' place in the UK for technology evaluation, supporting the work of major companies in fields ranging from engineering and consumer goods to healthcare and pharmaceuticals.

Andy Grant, Head of Big Data and HPC, Atos UK&I: "We believe that our Bull supercomputing technology and our expertise will reinforce the Centre's reputation as a world class HPC centre of excellence and as the flagship model for industry-academic collaboration."

Alison Kennedy, Director of the Hartree Centre said: "The Hartree Centre works at the leading edge of emerging technologies and provides substantial benefits to the many industrial and research organisations that come to us.  Our collaboration with Atos will ensure that we continue to enable businesses, large and small, to make the best use of supercomputing and Big Data to develop better products and services that will boost productivity and drive growth." 

The partnership also encompasses a joint project to develop next-generation hardware and software solutions and application optimisation services, so that commercial and academic users benefit from the Hartree systems. It is also helping promote participation in STEM careers at higher education level and beyond, particularly in the North West of the UK.

The Bull sequana will be approximately 3.4 PFlops when installed and is composed of Intel® Xeon® and many core Xeon Phi(TM) (Knights Landing) processor technology.  It has been designed to accommodate future blade systems for Deep Learning, GPU and ARM based computing.

The new Bull sequana system is one of the most energy efficient general purpose supercomputers in the world and is in the TOP20 of the Green500 list of the most energy efficient computers.

About Atos

Atos SE (Societas Europaea) is a leader in digital transformation with circa 100,000 employees in 72 countries and pro forma annual revenue of circa € 12 billion. Serving a global client base, the Group is the European leader in Big Data, Cybersecurity, Digital Workplace and provides Cloud services, Infrastructure & Data Management, Business & Platform solutions, as well as transactional services through Worldline, the European leader in the payment industry. With its cutting edge technologies, digital expertise and industry knowledge, the Group supports the digital transformation of its clients across different business sectors: Defense, Financial Services, Health, Manufacturing, Media, Utilities, Public sector, Retail, Telecommunications, and Transportation. The Group is the Worldwide Information Technology Partner for the Olympic & Paralympic Games and is listed on the Euronext Paris market. Atos operates under the brands Atos, Atos Consulting, Atos Worldgrid, Bull, Canopy, Unify and Worldline. www.atos.net | Follow @Atos

Bull is the Atos brand for its technology products and software, which are today distributed in over 50 countries worldwide. With a rich heritage of over 80 years of technological innovation, 2000 patents and a 700 strong R&D team supported by the Atos Scientific Community, it offers products and value-added software to assist clients in their digital transformation, specifically in the areas of Big Data and Cybersecurity and Defense. www.bull.com | Follow @Bull_com

Press contact:
Jose de Vries - jose.devries@atos.net - +31 6 30 27 26 11 - @Josee_devries