High-Performance Computing Center (HPC)

Karlsruhe’s current importance as a hub of scientific supercomputing is built on steady development: Since 1983, KIT and its predecessor organizations—Karlsruhe University and Karlsruhe Research Center—have operated over 30 high-performance computers. Between 1966 and 1996, there was already intense cooperation in this field among computer specialists in the initially separate computing centers of what later would be merger partners. This led to the founding of the Karlsruhe Virtual Computing Center in 1996, which served researchers and students from both the Research Center and the university. In 1983, the first “supercomputer”—a Control Data Cyber 205—was installed at Karlsruhe University’s computing center. Despite its modest performance of 200 to 800 million computing operations per second (64 bits, 2 pipes) by today’s standards, at the time it was considered one of the world’s fastest vector computers. KIT’s current supercomputer, HoreKa, has achieved 20 quadrillion (20*10¹⁵) computing operations per second since 2024, making it one of the 15 most powerful computers in Europe. It ranks 52nd in the global TOP500 list of the fastest computers. To put this into perspective: in the 40 years from the Control Data Cyber 205 to HoreKa, there has been a performance increase of eight orders of magnitude, equivalent to an average acceleration factor of 100 every 10 years. Energy efficiency and sustainability are of great importance in this context. In terms of energy efficiency, HoreKa ranked 6th in the international Green500 supercomputer ranking. Preparations for the next expansion of computing power are already underway, as researchers increasingly require more. It is needed, for example, for simulations of complex relationships and evaluations of measurement data to gain a more detailed understanding of natural and technical processes. Major areas of demand at KIT include meteorology and climate research, as well as projects dealing with the precise recording of combustion processes in the energy sector. as