Munich. On Monday, 3rd November, the High-Performance Computing system “Pitagora” was inaugurated at the Cineca Data Center in Casalecchio di Reno, Bologna. In the presence of the Italian Minister for Environment and Energy Security, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, and the Italian Minister for University and Research, Anna Maria Bernini, the system, with a total computational power of approximately 27 petaflops (27 quadrillion operations per second), was officially introduced to accelerate European fusion research. Energy efficiency was a key design criterion for the system. With the groundbreaking Lenovo Neptune Direct Water-Cooling technology, it dissipates up to 97% of the heat generated.
Why supercomputers?
Fusion plasmas are extremely complex physical systems, a swirling, turbulent soup of charged particles confined by magnetic fields.
For more than a century, humanity has tried to solve the riddle of the Sun’s substance to establish a new, clean, and virtually limitless energy source on Earth.
Supercomputers can help take fusion a giant leap forward, paving the way for future fusion machines such as ITER (the largest fusion experiment currently being built in France), DEMO (the first demonstrational fusion power plant), or stellarators (a type of fusion machine).
In complement to experimental research, numerical simulations on powerful high-performance computers allow scientists to understand and predict the wide range of physical processes at play.
Powering up European fusion research and development
Switching on Pitagora this week marks a major milestone for the project partners CINECA, ENEA, and the EUROfusion Consortium.
“We are very proud to turn this next step of fusion research into reality. Pitagora allows us to calculate at a much faster rate, so we can obtain results within hours instead of weeks,” says Dr. Richard Kamendje, Head of EUROfusion’s External Stakeholders & International Collaboration.
Multitasking like the Sun
With Pitagora’s help, European researchers can design magnetic configurations that improve the confinement of fuel particles within the plasma. Simulations also make it possible to understand and predict the interaction between hot plasma streams and surrounding material surfaces, leading to improved designs for the next generation of fusion facilities.
The results will also advance material research. Specialized codes simulate plasma heating and help optimize the burning conditions necessary to achieve net energy gain, ensuring that the plasma remains hot and stable enough to deliver fusion energy.
In addition, Pitagora will be used to simulate an entire fusion device – from start-up and plasma initiation through ramp-up, burn phase (including core turbulence, edge physics, and material response), to ramp-down and dwell phase.
This “virtual prototyping” approach enables the design and testing of new reactors before construction, potentially saving billions in costs.
An investment which is strongly supported by EUROfusion’s Programme Manager Gianfranco Federici: “Maintaining Europe’s leadership position in fusion research and development requires targeted investments like Pitagora. In such dedicated facilities, we can generate the kind of knowledge, know-how, and skills that will bring us closer to a fusion power plant. In this regard, Pitagora is a prime example of our dedication and commitment – and we are very proud of it.”
The history of Pitagora
The call for the new supercomputer was launched in 2022. Lenovo was chosen as a supplier. The system now operates with ~15.3 Pflops CPU partition and 27.3 Pflops GPU partition. It also features an advanced cooling system and is based on AMD “Turin” processors and latest GPU’s.
Early tests in May 2025 by two of EUROfusion’s advanced Computing Hubs, Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics and the Swiss Research Unit EPFL ran benchmark tests and rated the performance very good.
Pitagora’s performance of 42.6 Pflops in total places it in the top 50 – 100 supercomputers within the global Top500, making it a significant HPC resource, especially as a dedicated scientific cluster for EUROfusion.
Pitagora Supercomputer — Key Facts
General Information
- Name: Pitagora (Italian for Pythagoras)
- Installed at: CINECA data center, Casalecchio di Reno (Bologna, Italy)
- Primary users: EUROfusion, ENEA, and European fusion research community
Performance
- Total performance: ~ 42.6 PFlops (HPL benchmark)
- CPU partition: 15.3 PFlops
- GPU partition: 27.3 PFlops
Ranking
- GPU partition ranked #44 (Nov 2024 Top500)
- CPU partition ranked #107 (June 2025 Top500)
Architecture
- Lenovo ThinkSystem servers using AMD “Turin” processors and NVIDIA GPUs
Energy & Cooling
- Cooling technology: Lenovo Neptune™ Direct Water-Cooling
- Efficiency: Dissipates up to 98 % of heat through warm-water cooling
- Energy savings: Reduces cooling electricity consumption by ~ 15 %