Leonardo inaugurates davinci-1, the supercomputer that will boost computerisation

With the name davinci-1, which references the Renaissance genius, and the company, the new supercomputer has been created by Leonardo, and installed in the Fiumara Tower in Genoa, a symbol of technological innovation and development in Italy and Europe. Immediately included among the top 100 supercomputers in the world, according to the TOP500 ranking, and is among the top three in the A&D (Aerospace and Defence) sector, davinci-1 was created through a technological partnership with Atos and boasts the latest generation NVIDIA A100 accelerators.

 

It will have a battery of more than 100 supercomputing units, for a total computing power of more than 5PFlops (5 million billion floating point operations per second) with a high-performance network and a storage system created by DDN, equipped with the latest hardware and software technologies, with a storage capacity of the order of 20Pbytes (20 million Gigabytes).

With davinci-1, Leonardo will be able to accelerate disruptive technologies that represent the present and future of innovation: Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Intelligent Systems, Big Data Analytics, High Performance Computing, Electrification of Aeronautical Platforms, Materials and Structures and Quantum Technologies.

 

The supercomputer represents a jewel in the Italian HPC landscape, a knowledge accelerator capable of boosting the process of industrial digitalisation with direct repercussions for competitive development, not only for the company but also for the country. For this reason, Leonardo has created the Corporate Research Program, carried out through Leonardo Labs, including the one in Genoa, which will be an attraction for young international researchers.

After evaluating about one thousand young people, 68 will be selected to join the Labs network, to maintain a continuous flow of talent and ensure flexibility in terms of both skills and professional expertise, based on the adoption of an international model.

 

Translated by Andrea Rota, Sara Mentasti, Adriana Bocse and Debora De Benedetto

Reviewed by Prof. Rolf Cook