(EUROPE)

Belgium has joined a pan-European initiative to advance the development of super computer technologies.

Seven countries Italy, Germany, Luxembourg, Portugal, France, Spain, and the Netherlands signed a joint statement in Marchto support the next generation of computing and data infrastructures. Belgium will now partner with these nations to progressHigh Performance Computing (HPC) platforms that can be used by industry, academia and the public sector.

Theyplan to establishEuroHPC foracquiring and deploying an integrated world-class high-performance computing infrastructure capableof at least 1018calculations per second (so-called exascale computers). This will be available across the EU for scientific communities, industry and the public sector, no matter where the users are located, a European Union (EU) announcement in March said.

On Belgium becoming the eight country to back the venture,Andrus Ansip, European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Single Market, said: I am pleased that Belgium is now part of this ambitious project. Super computers have countless applications with a direct benefit on peoples lives. But EU countries cannot build and maintain this infrastructure on their own. This is why we have to join forces, and I invite more EU countries to get involved.

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Belgium joins super computer project - Innovators Magazine