“MUSICA” project manager Ernst Haunschmid (l.) and Education Minister Martin Polaschek (r.) © TU Wien / Matthias Heisler

BOKU is a partner in MUSICA, a cluster network that operates at several locations simultaneously.

With the launch of the “Multi-Site Computer Austria” (MUSICA), a supercomputer cluster is being realized that will work simultaneously at the Vienna, Linz and Innsbruck sites in a unique way. In the past, Austria's most powerful supercomputers (the Vienna Scientific Clusters, VSCs) were already operated jointly by several universities - but previously at a central location, with online access for all participating institutions.

“Today more than ever, cutting-edge research is dependent on appropriate infrastructure and sufficient computing power. The “MUSICA project” is a milestone for our domestic research landscape and a decisive contribution to cutting-edge research, particularly in the fields of AI and quantum research. With our investment of a total of 36 million euros in the MUSICA supercomputer cluster, we are creating the basis for future-oriented innovations and groundbreaking research findings. I am extremely pleased that the construction of the next supercomputer in Vienna has already begun,” says Martin Polaschek, Federal Minister of Education, Science and Research.

“The MUSICA cluster network will take the VSC, the successful Austrian-wide model of inter-university cooperation in the field of high-performance computing, to the next level of evolution and provide unprecedented computing power for research in Austria,” explains Andreas Schildberger, Head of BOKU IT.
 
With MUSICA, significantly more computing power will be available for research in the future: The fastest supercomputers in Austria to date have a combined performance of 5.01 petaflops. MUSICA will provide a total computing power of around 40 petaflops, which will place it among the 20 most powerful systems in the world. The size petaflops describes how many operations (addition/multiplications) can be carried out per second. One petaflop corresponds to one quadrillion (1015) operations per second.

 

Outlook

  • The installation of MUSICA in Vienna is currently underway. The system is scheduled to go into test operation in late fall 2024. Regular operation should be possible from January 2025.

  • For Innsbruck and Linz, the installation will take place in the first half of 2025. Regular operations are also scheduled to begin there from July 2025.

Partners

The following Austrian partners are involved in the MUSICA project:

  • Project coordinator: Vienna University of Technology

  • Project partners: University of Vienna, BOKU University, University of Innsbruck, Graz University of Technology, Johannes Kepler University Linz