The Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAS) has launched a new national supercomputer, dubbed Perun, at its campus in Bratislava.

The system has been integrated with a cluster in Košice, which went live last November, to form a single supercomputer.

According to local media, the project is part of Slovakia’s broader digital modernization effort, and was funded through the Recovery and Resilience Plan, with €36.3 million ($42.4m) allocated to SAS and €20.9m ($20.4m) to the Technical University of Košice.

On the November edition of the Top500 list of the world’s most powerful supercomputers, Perun ranked 125, with a compute performance of 14.5 petaflops. Now that it has been integrated with the Košice cluster, its performance is expected to exceed 25 petaflops. Perun builds on the existing system, Devana, which has long served as the backbone of Slovakia's computing infrastructure, SAS said in a statement.

Based on BullSequana XH3000 architecture and powered by Nvidia GH200 Superchips, the system will be used to support research and development efforts across a number of areas, including materials science, drug development, climate research, chemical simulations, and AI model training.

"With the launch of the Perun supercomputer, Slovakia joins countries equipped with modern computing infrastructure capable of supporting both cutting-edge research and applied development. This represents a strategic investment in the future of our science and innovation," said Martin Venhart, president of the Slovak Academy of Sciences.

Peter Stano, head of the European Commission Representation in Slovakia, added: "The national Perun supercomputer, with facilities in Košice and now also in Bratislava, is another important project made possible through EU support.

"It will enable the efficient processing of large-scale data, support the digital transformation of research institutions and companies, and provide the infrastructure needed to develop new digital services and technologies. The project will thus directly contribute to strengthening Slovakia's competitiveness.”