The upgraded national supercomputer of Cyprus is expected to be put into operation in June, at a time when our country is trying to strengthen its position on the European map of artificial intelligence through Pharos-CY.
The new infrastructure is being implemented as part of the collaboration with the global giant NVIDIA, which contributes with know-how, training and technological support and is part of the wider effort to upgrade the capabilities of high computing power and the utilization of artificial intelligence applications.
This was preceded by trainings, technical contacts and discussions with both NVIDIA and other stakeholders, so that the system is ready for immediate use.
Where will it be housed?
The new infrastructure, which will be open to the entire ecosystem, is housed at the Cyprus Institute, in the space where high computing power systems are already operating.
However, according to the same information, the upgraded supercomputer will offer significantly increased capabilities, giving researchers, universities, public bodies and businesses access to more powerful tools for artificial intelligence applications, big data analysis and complex simulations.
In particular, the central axis of the effort is the strategic partnership with NVIDIA, through which Cyprus will acquire an upgraded national High Performance Computing (HPC) infrastructure, filling a critical gap in domestic computing capabilities, as government officials had previously pointed out.
Its operation is considered critical for sectors such as health, energy, environment, crisis management, shipping, digital governance, and the development of AI solutions with practical application to the economy.
In the same context, Pharos-CY
Pharos-CY is part of the same broader context, with the aim of Cyprus' participation in the European artificial intelligence ecosystem.
Pharos-CY's mission is to be the Cypriot AI Factory Antenna, providing access to specialized infrastructure, data and technological tools to research institutions, businesses and public sector bodies.
The funding of Pharos-CY comes from the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking and the Republic of Cyprus, through the Deputy Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy. The project is coordinated by the CaSToRC of the Cyprus Institute.
Presented at the Presidential Palace
The new artificial intelligence and supercomputing infrastructure will be unveiled at the Presidential Palace on Friday. The program includes greetings from the Deputy Minister of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy Nikodimos Damianou and the Deputy Minister to the President Irene Piki.
Yiannis Iosifakis, Vice President of Sales and Business Development for HPC/Supercomputing at NVIDIA (pictured by Mr. Iosifakis in a meeting with President Christodoulides in the US), will be present with a speech entitled "Cyprus-NVIDIA: From Collaboration to Implementation".
This will be followed by presentations on strategic infrastructures and initiatives, with the participation of Professor Konstantinos Dovrolis, Coordinator of Pharos-CY, and George Tsouloupas, Head of Supercomputing and Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure at the Cyprus Institute.
The event will conclude with a panel discussion on how Cyprus can strategically leverage AI and HPC, with the participation of representatives from the state, NVIDIA, academia, and the tech ecosystem.
It is recalled that the important cooperation with NVIDIA was the result of Cyprus' strategy to promote the country as a technological and investment hub and the contacts of the President of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulides, abroad and in particular in the USA, where he had meetings with leading technology companies, including NVIDIA, OpenAI, Amazon, Google, Oracle, Plug and Play and Tenstorrent.
In the previous period, executives of Amazon, but also of other companies, had been in Cyprus, while Plug and Play has already found a headquarters for its offices in Limassol and Tenstorrent has opened an office on our island.
