CASPIr Procurement Launched: Ireland’s New Data-Centric EuroHPC Platform

ICHEC is delighted to announce that the procurement of the EuroHPC supercomputer in Ireland, CASPIr, has been launched on Friday (27th March) - see also announcements from EuroHPC Joint Undertaking and the Department of Further And Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (DFHERIS).

What is CASPIr?

CASPIr, the Computational Analysis and Simulation Platform for Ireland, is the latest in a series of supercomputers co-funded by the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (JU) and Participating States. CASPIr will be co-owned by the University of Galway (on behalf of the Irish Government) and the EuroHPC JU, pro rata to their financial contributions (65% and 35% respectively). The national share (65%) will support the operation of the new National Advanced Computing Service in Ireland. The JU share (35%) will be allocated to European users through competitive calls managed at European level.

Will CASPIr be like Kay or MeluXina?

Yes, but a more modern design with additional features that set it apart from platforms like Kay. CASPIr follows a data-centric architecture. Conceptually, the core of the CASPIr platform will be its tiered multi-Petabyte data storage, which will be connected to a range of compute modules including standard CPU nodes, accelerated GPU nodes, high-memory nodes, and a private cloud gateway. This architecture is now considered best practice and can be found across modern deployments like Germany’s JUPITER or France’s Alice Recoque. 

When will the National Service open on CASPIr?

Current estimates indicate that the service will open in Q3 2027, subject to change depending on supply chains and completion of site adaptation at the hosting data centre.

Will you support AI applications? 

Yes, partially. Though CASPIr will be technically capable of handling small to medium scale AI jobs, it will not have sufficient capability for large-scale AI workloads or advanced AI applications that are catered for by specialised AI Factories. The reasons for this are linked to hardware specifications (lower density of GPUs per node, lower memory configuration per GPU) and capacity. Note that CASPIr’s primary target audience is the mainstream computational science community, and contention for access to GPUs is anticipated to develop within the first year of operation. 

For large-scale AI workloads, we recommend applying for (fully subsidised) resources on Europe’s leading AI Factory Supercomputers through EuroHPC open calls. 

See https://www.eurohpc-ju.europa.eu/ai-factories_en

How can Irish users access EuroHPC resources?

A total of 12 EuroHPC supercomputers have already been procured, the majority already in operation such as Luxembourg’s MeluXina, which is currently providing the compute and storge resources to operate the Irish Interim National HPC Service. 

https://www.eurohpc-ju.europa.eu/supercomputers/our-supercomputers_en

Recognising the steep learning curve associated with accessing supercomputers at the scale of EuroHPC systems, ICHEC is developing a new initiative, ASCENT, to support Irish researchers in applying to EuroHPC’s open calls. Details will be publicised shortly on our website, including the initial call for Expressions of Interest.

What will be CASPIr’s new functionalities compared to Kay or even MeluXina?

CASPIr is data-centric by design. Though it will be able to perform as a more conventional supercomputer like Kay (traditional HPC jobs handled through a queueing system such as SLURM), CASPIr will also support modern environment and orchestration through containerisation and complex workflows. CASPIr’s private cloud will provide a modern access gateway to become a processing node in national and EU data federations, for example through the EuroHPC Federation Platform and open science/data federations such as EOSC and Data Spaces (details under review). Support for portal-based access with Jupyter notebooks and similar technologies will be supported.

Importantly, a number of long-running high-value data services operated by ICHEC, primarily but not exclusively for large environmental data sets, will be subsumed and modernised within the National Service, which is why we decided to update its designation as the National Advanced Computing Service. 

Move to community-based allocation model (where possible)

ICHEC has been working closely with the Users and Science Council to discuss the feasibility of moving towards community-based applications, rather than purely a project-based approach as is the case now. The benefits are significant, ranging from quicker turnaround times between application and access, to the structuring of scientific communities around the national platform and the services it underpins. We expect to implement this model from the very start of the new service, in Q3 2027. Implementation details will be defined in close consultation with both the Users and Science Councils. Please contact the Council Chairs if you wish to contribute to this process.

How can we feed our requirements into the procurement process?

The overarching architecture and several aspects of the platform such as the share of computing power to be provided by GPU-accelerated resources had been set at proposal time in 2022 and contractually defined. Importantly, the system incorporates forward looking characteristics so that the feature set, balance and performance delivered by CASPIr are not constrained by the age of the original design.

The complexity of this platform led us to choose a competitive dialogue model for this procurement, which means that prospective suppliers will be invited to take part in a series of dialogues to converge to an optimal configuration. A minimum of two, possibly three dialogues are expected. One of our core concerns is to ensure that the final configuration is not only fit for purpose but also optimised for the broad range of workloads. 

The three mechanisms used to deliver on this objective are:

• Close collaboration with the Users Council, with its Chairperson invited to participate in the dialogue phase. Given the commercially sensitive nature of the competitive dialogue process, certain aspects will be subject to confidentiality requirements.
• Roadshows and mini-workshops across the Higher Education Institution (HEI) sector (see below). 
• Development of up to seven lighthouse projects by leading Irish research groups across a range of scientific and engineering domains. These projects will play a key role to ensure that user requirements are reflected in the refinement of system specifications.

Opportunities to engage with ICHEC

ICHEC is embarking on an extensive stakeholders’ consultation process to support the development of its Strategy & Business Plan for 2027 to 2031. The consultation will run for three months, from mid-April to mid-July 2026. It will consist of a number of roadshows across HEIs nationwide, as well as engagement with Research Ireland’s new Research Centres, research institutes and leading PIs. Additional consultations will also take place with enterprises and public sector bodies.