It will be operational until 2025 to guarantee Italy, from north to south, the most powerful computing network it has ever had: this is the goal of the ICSC, the National Research Center for High-Performance Computing, Big Data, and Quantum Computing. The network is designed to be at the top for at least 10 years, developing advanced artificial intelligence, quantum programs, all the potential of supercomputers, and above all guaranteeing the infrastructure for new generations of researchers.
“A good part of the network already exists,” said Sandra Parlati, science representative for the Icsc National Center at the National Institute of Nuclear Physics’ Gran Sasso National Laboratories — much of the infrastructure is already in place, and many more data centers will need to be upgraded. and strengthened in the following months. But everything will be operational by 2025.”
This is a computing network that will cross the entire country from north to south in a distributed manner, connecting various existing computing centers, including the Leonardo supercomputer at Cineca in Bologna and numerous other computing centers like the one present on the Gran Sasso. with an ultra-fast network with a capacity of more than 1 terabit/second.
It is difficult to give an understandable measure of the total computing capacity we will have and the storage – he added – because these are elements of continuous technological development, but it will certainly be the most important IT infrastructure ever built in Italy.
The new infrastructure created and managed by the ICSC Foundation includes 37 research bodies and universities and 14 companies, all thanks to a total investment of around €320 million allocated under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. “It is an important investment – said Parlati – that will allow us to make essential contributions to studies dedicated to, for example, the mitigation of natural disasters and to connect the academic and research world with the business world to support and encourage innovation.
The network thus created will also continue to operate for at least 10 years, even after the closure of the Pnrr”. Applications will range across all branches of computing, from artificial intelligence to quantum, from real-time weather forecasting to Nowcasting to applications in the medicine of the future. “One of the most important elements – added Eleonora Bergamaschi, a data engineer from Cineca – will be to eliminate the technological gaps existing between the various centers and those between the north and the south. Moreover, for many young Italian researchers who will have the tool to eliminate them, it is at a high level to work, without necessarily having to go abroad.”
