Korea, France seek cooperation in supercomputing

Cerdic Bourrasset, head of the High Performance AI Business Unit at French supercomputing company Atos, gives a presentation during the "Empowering the NextGen High-Performance Computing through Scientific and Industry Collaborations" conference at the French ambassador's residence in Seoul, June 23. Courtesy of Embassy of France in Korea

By Kwon Mee-yoo

Experts in high-performance computing (HPC) from France and Korea discussed ways for cooperation during the "Empowering the NextGen High-Performance Computing through Scientific and Industry Collaborations" conference, hosted by the Embassy of France, June 23.

HPC refers to supercomputers and computer clusters used to solve complex computation problems, and France is one of Europe's leading countries in the field.

Julien Cats, deputy head of the French Embassy in Seoul, said supercomputing is an important part of France 2030, the country's plan for digital transformation.

"French President Emmanuel Macron announced a 30 billion euro investment strategy for digital transformation last October and quantum computing can be used in many fields such as climate change, healthcare, astrophysics and artificial intelligence," Cats said.

Cats went on to say that two exascale supercomputers will be introduced to Europe within a few years and he hopes France will be involved.

Exascale computing refers to the capability to perform a billion billion, or a quintillion, calculations per second.

Laurent Crouzet, head of the Digital Services and Infrastructures Department at the French Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, shared how Europe's experience and cooperation created HPC infrastructure such as exascale computing.

Cecile Vigouroux, director of International Relations at the National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology in France, spoke on how the state-run organization collaborates with strategic partners, including Korea.

Atos, a French company leading the development of quantum technology which launched the first high-performing quantum simulator in 2017, organized the conference with the embassy.

Cedric Bourrasset, in charge of high-performance large-scale AI business at Atos, introduced how the company leads the hybrid computing ecosystem integrating AI and quantum computing, as Atos unveiled its new exascale-class supercomputer in February.

Bourrasset said exascale computing can operate calculations more efficiently and rapidly and can be applied to many fields from healthcare to weather forecasting.

"We are improving software within the same compute power envelope (CPE) to reduce the carbon footprint of HPC," Bourrasset said.

Lee Jae-jin of the Graduate School of Data Science at Seoul National University explained how a hybrid of HPC and quantum simulation is used in deep learning.

Lee Sik, head of the Supercomputing Center at Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KISTI), introduced the center's role in providing supercomputing resources to scientists and engineers in Korea.

"As the Korean government recognizes the importance of supercomputing, Korea is trying to make our own exascale supercomputer and Europe has impressive layers of technologies in hardware, software and engineering, and Korean and European institutes can be good partners for each other," he said.

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