Today marks 20 years since the signing of the contract for IBM to manufacture the first MareNostrum supercomputer, once defined as “the most beautiful in the world” due to its location in the desecrated chapel of the Girona Tower, on the North campus of the UPC. from Barcelona. Today, the fifth version of MareNostrum is no longer in that emblematic place, but in the main building of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC). Its director, Mateo Valero, led its genesis long before.
20 years ago an uncertain adventure began...
It was a challenge, because there had never been such powerful machines in Spain and it was not known how it would turn out.
Could it be said that MareNostrum made Barcelona and Spain stand out in a discipline where others stood out?
Yes. There were centers with a lot of funding, that already had experience and of course you want to be like them, pay attention to them and if you can, be better than them. We can say that we are proud that in Europe there is no doubt that today we are the best center and at an international level I would put two in America and one in Japan, at the same level as ours.
Is Barcelona well placed then on the world map of supercomputing?
That's a fact, yes. But it's not like we're on the map. We are with a fat thumbtack.
It wasn't all about signing the construction of the supercomputer.
If twenty years is nothing, twenty years before, forty ago, we created the seed of what later became the BSC at the university level, which made it smaller. It was called CEPBA, European Center for Parallelism of Barcelona.
What was the biggest difficulty when commissioning the construction of MareNostrum?
IBM gave us a machine that was number 4 in the world for 12 million euros. It was a kind of gift. I must also say that IBM made three types of supercomputers and this was the first that they were going to make of the commodity type. The hardware was what the Power PCs, laptops, had. And with the software we also took a chance and put the Linux operating system. They told us: “you are going to crash.” First, because these processors will not do a good job; and second, because Linux is a novelty.
It all started in a very sad and complicated moment...
We went to sign at La Moncloa the day before some unfortunate people committed the horrible attack on 11-M. Logically, if the order had been the opposite, the BSC would not exist today.
Were there more risks?
This was signed on March 10, 2004. On August 6, 2004, a Secretary of State called me from Madrid and I thought it was curious, because I didn't know him, but he should have known that it was my birthday. It wasn't for that. He told me: “Hey, wasn't it true that this MareNostrum thing was a stupid thing on Aznar's part to win votes?” But since when has science won votes in this country?
What did he answer?
I told him: “no, excuse me, this is a very serious thing, there is a signed contract. Do what you want, but Spain will have to pay for it and it will cost more.” Then he is one of the people who invites me the most today to give lectures. In other words, we were born by chance.
At that time it was not known where the MareNostrum was going to be installed or had they already thought about putting it in the chapel?
No, it was not known. Four years ago we had created a joint center with IBM, which I called CIRI (CEPBA IBM Research Institute), and we had already been working a lot together for four years. There was a director of IBM Spain who was clear about it, which was Amparo Moraleda, who said: “we are going to the Government. If you want, we are going to give you a gift, but on the condition that they upload you to a supercomputing center.”
How was it decided to install the supercomputer in the chapel?
The MareNostrum was the fourth in the world and it had to be set up. At 22 @ they offered us a very nice building, and I told the rector, Josep Ferrer: “Look, rector, I don't want the supercomputer to leave the campus, because it is going to motivate many students.” I was at a conference in June-July in Munich and he called me: “Hey, Mateo, what if we put it in the chapel?” I told him: “But what have you had?
It was a shock.
When I told my mother, may she rest in peace, she didn't speak to me for a month. She was very devout: “My son, you have committed sacrilege. With me what I have taught you! A computer in a chapel!” She set up in the chapel because there was nowhere and I wanted it to be on the UPC campus, where telecommunications and computing are located.
Time has proven them right in their approaches.
The vision we had was important, first of technology, because it is the one that has triumphed in both software and hardware and interconnection networks, but it was a pioneer in creating research groups. In addition to hardware and software engineering, Earth sciences and life sciences. And we were right because they are the two most important issues there are. It's just that sometimes we've been lucky.
And now comes AI...
Thanks to the fact that there was a lot of data and computers began to be fast, we took artificial intelligence out of the closet, because they were in a polar winter. The concept appears in '56 and in '97 Deep Blue beats Kasparov.
You put in as many hours as the machine.
Personally I am very excited. Like the first day. Saturdays, Sundays, morning and afternoon. Those who work here, too. I think they feel with BSC DNA, which means we know we have to get resources and we have to be the best. Therefore, we have to work hard and well. The truth is that, even though I have scolded them, I am, and I'm just saying this to you, very proud to have all the people I have. They are unique.
