Sweden's AI Catalyst: 300-Petaflops Supercomputer Fuels Nordic Research

A Swedish physician who helped pioneer chemistry 200 years ago just got another opportunity to innovate. A supercomputer officially christened in honor of Jöns Jacob Berzelius aims to establish AI as a core technology of the next century. Berzelius (pronounced behr-zeh-LEE-us) invented chemistry's shorthand (think H20) and discovered a handful of elements including silicon. A 300-petaflops system now stands on the Linköping University (LiU) campus, less than 70 kilometers from his birthplace in south-central Sweden, like a living silicon tribute to innovations yet to come. "Many cities in Sweden have a square or street that bears Berzelius's name, but the average person probably doesn't know much about him," said Niclas Andersson, technical director at the National Supercomputer Centre (NSC) at Linköping University, which is home to the system based on the NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD.