IDRIS (Institut du Développement et des Ressources en Informatique Scientifique) stands as a cornerstone of France’s scientific computing landscape. As the CNRS’s premier center for HPC & AI, IDRIS provides the computational backbone for a multitude of research endeavors across disciplines.
A Pillar of National HPC Infrastructure
Situated on the Paris-Saclay campus in Orsay, IDRIS hosts Jean Zay, France’s most powerful research supercomputer. With a peak performance of 125.9 petaflops, Jean Zay supports over 3000 users on ~1500 scientific projects, spanning domains from climate modeling to advanced AI. Its hybrid architecture, which integrates both CPU and GPU technologies, delivers over 82% of its computing power through GPU-based accelerators—making it exceptionally well-suited for intensive AI workloads.
A recent upgrade has added state-of-the-art 1456 NVIDIA H100 GPUs, significantly enhancing Jean Zay’s capabilities to meet the growing demands of next-generation AI research.
Jean Zay also exemplifies sustainable computing, utilizing a warm-water cooling system that improves energy efficiency and recycles heat to warm IDRIS facilities and about 1,000 nearby homes in partnership with EPAPS.
