Eviden, a product brand of the Atos Group, in collaboration with AMD, has been chosen to develop Alice Recoque, a state-of-the-art supercomputer.
This project aims to bolster high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities in Europe.
Bobbing up as one of the continent's most powerful systems, Alice Recoque will be the first Exascale supercomputer in France and the second in Europe, dedicated to enhancing scientific research with a focus on energy efficiency and technological sovereignty.
Led by GENCI and operated by the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), Alice Recoque is designed to perform over one Exaflop per second, equating to a billion calculations per second for scientific simulations.
With an overall investment of 554 million euros over five years, the project enjoys funding from the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (JU) through the Digital Europe Programme and contributions from Jules Verne Consortium partners in France, Netherlands, and Greece, notably SURF and GRNET.
The installation of Alice Recoque will take place at the CEA's Very Large Computing Center (TGCC) in France. This facility is already home to other high-performance systems developed by Eviden, including the Joliot-Curie system of GENCI and CEA's Topaze.
This new addition will merge traditional HPC with AI workloads, addressing significant scientific, societal, and industrial challenges using data analysis and AI model simulations.
The Alice Recoque system will be powered by next-generation AMD EPYC CPUs, codenamed "Venice," AMD Instinct MI430X GPUs from the MI400 Series, and AMD FPGAs. It will also incorporate a compute partition utilizing the European Rhea2 processor by SiPearl.
Eviden's BullSequana XH3500 platform and networking technology (BXIv3) will interconnect the system, complemented by DDN's storage solutions. This powerful architecture is expected to advance fields like climate modeling, materials innovation, and personalized medicine through digital twins.
Emphasizing the importance of a controlled and secure supply chain, Alice Recoque incorporates predominantly European technologies, fulfilling goals of technological sovereignty.
With over 70% of BullSequana XH3500 components produced in Europe, the system ensures compliance and reduces geopolitical risks while adhering to environmental goals.
Composed of 94 racks, Alice Recoque is set to be a top-tier supercomputer for double-precision workloads in Europe. Its superior memory performance and reduced energy consumption—achieving a 20% improvement in workload energy efficiency compared to similar systems—reflect its cutting-edge design.
Enhanced by AMD Instinct MI430X GPUs, the system offers exceptional AI computation power, aiming for significant energy efficiency with reduced hardware footprint.
Key figures involved in the project extol the collaboration’s wider impact: Philippe Baptiste from France’s Ministry of Higher Education celebrates its role in strengthening HPC capabilities, while Anne Le Hénanff highlights its contribution to Europe’s digital sovereignty.
Meanwhile, Greece’s Dimitris Papastergiou underlines the project’s significance in fostering innovation and collaboration.
The project carries vast significance, as noted by stakeholders like Anders Jensen of EuroHPC JU, who expects Alice Recoque to be a vital addition to Europe’s computing fleet. Philippe Lavocat from GENCI underscores its potential to redefine European technological landscapes.
Supporting this view, Anne-Isabelle Etienvre from CEA affirms their readiness to operate this exemplar of European technological synergy. The engagement from Eviden, AMD, SiPearl, and DDN emphasizes a shared vision for innovation and excellence in computation, marking a significant advancement in Europe’s AI and HPC capabilities.
Eviden, the Atos Group product brand pioneering in advanced computing, and AMD announced their selection to build Alice Recoque, a next-generation supercomputer to support the need for scientific computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI), serving as an AI Factory.
Alice Recoque will be France’s first and Europe’s second Exascale supercomputer, a machine to expand Europe’s AI and research capabilities while ensuring energy efficiency and sovereignty.
This project, led by France GENCI, operated by CEA, will have the capacity to surpass one Exaflop per second (i.e. a billion calculations per second) for scientific simulation.
Funded by EuroHPC JU
This extreme performance, equivalent to more calculations than humanity could accomplish in four years of relentless mental computation, will mark a fiftyfold an increase in the computing capacity compared to the previous system, while only multiplying by 5 the electrical power.
This project, representing an overall cost of 554 million euros over 5 years of operation, is funded by EuroHPC JU, with budget stemming from the Digital Europe Programme (DEP), and by the Jules Verne consortium, led by France through GENCI and CEA with the participation of Netherlands with SURF and Greece with GRNET.
Alice Recoque will be installed within France’s CEA’s Very Large Computing Center (TGCC), which already hosts Eviden-built systems such as GENCI’s Joliot-Curie machine and CEA’s Topaze machine.
Combining traditional HPC and AI workloads
Alice Recoque will tackle Europe’s most pressing societal, scientific, and industrial challenges by combining traditional High-Performance Computing (HPC) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) workloads from large-scale simulations, data analysis, and AI models.
Alice Recoque covers the entire computing lifecycle, integrating cutting-edge hardware and advanced AI software to deliver scalable high-impact solutions. This project is a live implementation of the strong collaboration and commitment from Eviden and AMD to accelerate research and industrialization of HPC-AI use cases, with a major investment in both human and technological resources.
Powered by next-gen AMD EPYC CPUs
The acceleration partition of the Alice Recoque system will be powered by next-gen AMD EPYC CPUs, codenamed “Venice,” AMD Instinct MI430X GPUs—a new MI400 Series accelerator engineered for sovereign AI and scientific computing— and AMD FPGAs.
In addition, Alice Recoque will welcome a scalar compute partition based on the European Rhea2 processor developed by SiPearl. The entire system will be interconnected by Eviden’s network solution (BXIv3) into its newest BullSequana XH3500 platform, along with storage solutions provided by DDN.
This powerful ecosystem will enhance climate modeling, accelerate innovation in materials and energy, enable digital twins for personalized medicine, and support next-gen European foundational AI models. It will also address the vast amount of data generated by scientific instruments such as telescopes, satellites as well as IoT devices, and AI applications, driving breakthroughs across multiple domains.
Committing to a sovereign and controlled supply chain
As a result of a shared ambition for technological sovereignty, the Alice Recoque system will integrate various European technologies, including some critical components. The entire system will be interconnected through the Eviden’s BXIv3 networking technology, an efficient European alternative for interconnecting converged HPC/AI systems.
On top of the Exascale system, an additional partition will integrate European SiPearl Rhea2 CPU to increase the system computation capacities.
With nearly three-quarters of the production of the BullSequana XH3500 components relocated to Europe, Eviden ensures full traceability, regulatory compliance, and reduced geopolitical risks – aligning with Europe’s climate goals and reinforcing digital sovereignty through secure, sustainable, and high-performance AI-HPC technologies.
Exceptional memory performance
Composed of 94 racks, Alice Recoque is expected to be one of the top supercomputers in Europe for double-precision HPC workloads. Building on this foundation, it will also offer exceptional memory performance enabling deeper insights, faster simulations, and more scientific breakthroughs.
To achieve these capabilities, Alice Recoque will encompass future-ready, modular and scalable components into Eviden’s recently unveiled BullSequana XH3500 architecture to address the growing demands of HPC, AI and quantum computing.
With 25% less racks and components than other Exascale systems and up to 50% better energy efficiency per GPU, Eviden’s architecture will enable Alice Recoque to deliver maximum performance at minimum cost and power, to meet Europe’s demanding green computing goals.
Powered by AMD Instinct MI430X GPUs
Powered by AMD Instinct MI430X GPUs, Alice Recoque supports advanced AI data types, including FP4 and FP8, providing leadership AI FLOPs. Each GPU integrates 432 GB of HBM4 memory and 19.6 TB/s of bandwidth which will enable Alice Recoque to deliver leadership capacity and throughput per GPU.
To enable the AMD Instinct GPUs to operate at full capacity and to boost distributed communication efficiency, the Alice Recoque system will be connected through Eviden’s in-house interconnect technology, BXIv3. Guarantee of sovereignty, this European network solution will seamlessly connect all components of the system, delivering faster application performance and optimized resource utilization.
Eviden’s integrated hardware and smart software
Eviden’s integrated hardware and smart software will deliver pioneering computing power with improved application workload energy efficiency, which is expected to reach about 20%, compared to equivalent exascale systems, a major step towards frugal AI.
Real-time monitoring and energy optimization are enabled by Eviden’s Argos intelligent software, while its unique 5th generation Direct Liquid Cooling technology uses warm water to cool 100% of all-in-one rack components, delivering efficiency and sustainability at scale.
Key figures:
- Overall project cost of 554 million euros over 5 years
- Peak performance of 1 exaflop (i.e. 1 billion calculations) per second for double precision workloads The equivalent of more calculations than humanity could accomplish in four years of relentless mental computation
- The equivalent of 10 million modern desktop computers
- Increase by 50 in CEA’s supercomputing center (TGCC) computing capacity, while only multiplying by 5 the electrical power
- 94 racks, 280km of cabling, 280 tons over 174 square meters (racks + services + cabling) Weight equivalent to 140 electrical vehicles or 28 city buses
- 25% less racks and components than other Exascale systems
- Reduced energy consumption: Improved application workload energy efficiency, expected to reach about 20%, compared to equivalent exascale systems,
- Up to 50% better energy efficiency per GPU, compared to existing exascale system
- 100% of the rack components cooled with warm water
Comments
Philippe Baptiste, French Minister for Higher Education, Research and Space:
“The selection of Eviden to build Alice Recoque, Europe’s new exascale supercomputer, is a major step forward for France and Europe. This project embodies our shared ambition in the field of high-performance computing, AI, and quantum technologies, while reinforcing our technological leadership.”
“Hosted at CEA’s TGCC, Alice Recoque will empower researchers and industries to address critical challenges—from climate modeling to healthcare innovation. It is a cornerstone for what we will achieve together, for science, progress, and the French and European digital future.”
Anne Le Hénanff, French Minister of State for AI and Digital Affairs:
“On the occasion of the Summit on Digital Sovereignty on the 18th of November, we reaffirm with other European member states our ambition: to strengthen our European digital champions. The selection of Eviden to equip the Alice Recoque supercomputer is a concrete example of Europe acting collectively to make digital sovereignty a reality.”
“Alice Recoque will become a key pillar for the future of quantum computing and artificial intelligence. It is a source of pride to see French companies play a central role in this advancement.”
Dimitris Papastergiou, Minister of Digital Governance of Greece:
“Europe’s experience shows that technological sovereignty is achieved through cooperation and long-term vision. Greece’s participation in the Alice Recoque supercomputer project reflects our commitment to a strong, competitive European tech ecosystem and aligns with our National AI Strategy implemented under Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.”
“Alice Recoque opens new opportunities for collaboration and innovation, giving Greek startups, researchers, and academic institutions access to cutting-edge tools and positioning Greece at the forefront of global AI developments.”
Anders Jensen, EuroHPC JU Executive Director:
“As Europe has officially entered the exascale era, I am delighted to soon welcome Alice Recoque to our EuroHPC fleet. This groundbreaking exascale supercomputer, powered by pioneering European technologies, will elevate scientific discovery, industrial innovation, and technological sovereignty to the next level, while ensuring exceptional energy efficiency.”
Philippe Lavocat, CEO of GENCI:
“In the global race to harness computing power as the engine of scientific discovery and innovation, EuroHPC’s decision to select Eviden and embrace sovereign technologies for the Alice Recoque Exascale supercomputer marks a defining milestone for Europe and France.”
“Building on a collaborative journey that began three years ago, GENCI and all members of the Jules Verne consortium are extremely proud in their pivotal role in bringing this groundbreaking Exascale system to life—a true game changer for research and industry.”
“By paving the path toward post-Exascale services, Alice Recoque will propel Europe “Beyond HPC,” federating high-performance computing, artificial intelligence, and quantum technologies to empower science, accelerate innovation, and strengthen our technological sovereignty and global competitiveness.”
Anne-Isabelle Etienvre, General Administrator of the CEA:
“As a key player in supercomputing, CEA and its teams are ready, eager and proud to host and operate the Alice Recoque exascale supercomputer at TGCC. This is a strong recognition of our expertise in building major research infrastructures and of our teams skills throughout the value chain.”
“The CEA welcomes EuroHPC's selection of a machine integrating numerous European technological and software components for this project, including Eviden's BXI network and SiPearl's Rhea2 processor, which have long been supported by the CEA.”
“We congratulate Eviden on winning the tender for this new European Flagship for research. Europe is thereby demonstrating its unity and reaffirming its leadership in the field of HPC and AI, a strategy that is in line with the CEA's vision.”
Valeriu Codreanu, manager Compute Services at SURF:
“We are proud to be part of this extraordinary project. Alice Recoque will not only help our scientist with access to cutting edge compute power, but will also strengthen the European sovereignty.”
Emmanuel Le Roux, Group SVP, global head of Advanced Computing and AI, Eviden at Atos Group:
“Alice Recoque represents another critical step toward Europe’s digital future, defined by a sovereignty, sustainability and scientific excellence. As a catalyst for scientific and industrial breakthroughs, from climate modeling and healthcare to advanced materials and AI innovation, it will empower researchers and industries across Europe.”
“Born from a shared European vision, this AI Factory reflects on what we can achieve collectively toward a common goal. Eviden is fully dedicated to its success, bringing deep expertise, a collaborative spirit, and a long-term dedication to responsible technological leadership.”
Dan McNamara, senior vice president, Compute & Enterprise AI, AMD:
"We are committed to enabling the next generation of innovation across AI and HPC. The Alice Recoque supercomputer represents a major step forward for European sovereign AI, uniting national ambition, regional collaboration, and AMD’s high-performance and AI compute technologies.”
“Through our continued collaboration with EuroHPC JU, the Jules Verne Consortium, and Eviden, we are proud to support Europe’s scientific and industrial leadership with a platform purpose-built for scale, efficiency and discovery.”
Philippe Notton, CEO and founder of SiPearl:
“With the Alice Recoque supercomputer, we are taking a major step forward in our mission to provide sovereign microprocessor technologies to the European AI and HPC ecosystem through our cooperation with our strategic partner Eviden.”
Paul Bloch, President & Co-Founder, DDN:
“DDN is privileged to support the Alice Recoque Exascale supercomputer with the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, GENCI, CEA, Surf, GRNET and Eviden. This deployment reinforces DDN’s leadership in data-intelligence infrastructure for advanced HPC and AI.”
“By delivering extreme performance, efficiency and data insight at massive scale, we help accelerate discovery, strengthen European competitiveness to tackle high-impact challenges.”
