Bulgarian supercomputer Discoverer receives AI acceleration

The large-scale upgrade of the Bulgarian supercomputer Discoverer has been completed, so it now has new artificial intelligence capacities. The AI ​​acceleration trend opens up vast opportunities for businesses and academics across Europe and gives Bulgaria a chance to gain a leadership position in the context of the hottest technological race of our age.

The availability of such computing power, technical capacity and human potential in the field of artificial intelligence is one of the factors that will directly determine the competitiveness of our economy in the coming years. We must be able to use it in the best possible way," said Tomislav Donchev, the Minister of Innovation and Growth, during a press conference announcing the modernization of Discoverer.

Discoverer+ now has a new class of features, GPUs and memory, with significantly increased performance. Thanks to the upgrade, the machine is now capable of training neural networks, working with large language models, artificial intelligence, creating digital twins, machine learning and other computationally intensive tasks.

The following components have been added to the Discoverer systems:

• GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) partition to improve supercomputer performance.
• Long-Term Storage and Flash Storage for long-term data storage and for tasks requiring intensive calculations. Discoverer currently has a CPU (Central Processing Unit) partition, which is one of the largest in Europe. 
• Discoverer's UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) components have been improved.

Discoverer+ will be part of the Bulgarian AI factory BRAIN++, a project that was approved in March by the EuroHPC JU. The factory will form part of a network of 13 EU AI centers. It will include an advanced supercomputer, Discoverer++, specialized for work in the field of AI and robotics, and a center that will offer training and consulting to government and private organizations and companies.

Translated by Tzvetozar Vincent Iolov