A new Belgian national supercomputer has launched at a Penta Infra-owned data center at the Green Energy Park in Zellik, a town in the province of Flemish Brabant, Belgium.

Dubbed Sofia, the Tier-1 system was built in collaboration with Vrije Universiteit Brussels (VUB – Free University of Brussels), which will be responsible for managing the supercomputer for the next six years. The system was named after the Greek definition of Sofia, which means wisdom.

A Tier-1 supercomputer is defined as a single, larger system that serves all of Flanders, as opposed to a Tier-2 supercomputer – a smaller system hosted by individual universities.

According to VUB, Sofia forms part of the Flemish Supercomputer Centre (VSC) project, and will be made available to researchers at Flemish universities, in addition to enterprises and academic institutions focused on applied sciences. No information about the hardware that makes up Sofia, or the compute power it provides, has been disclosed.

“The impressive computing power of the Flemish supercomputer Sofia will provide a tremendous boost to researchers at our Flemish universities, knowledge institutions, and companies,” said Flemish Minister-President, Matthias Diependael.

“With an investment of €8.6 million ($10m), we once again underline our ambition to position Flanders as a pioneer in innovation and sustainable high-tech development. By making strategic choices and investing in the ‘engine room of the future’, we are creating the right conditions for Flemish researchers to excel. In this way, we are working today on the solutions to tomorrow’s challenges. Flanders has everything it takes to rank among the world’s top regions in research and innovation.”

The supercomputer was first announced in January of this year, with Sofia succeeding the 3.3 petaflops Hortense, which is currently housed at Ghent University.

The data center at which the new system is housed was originally built by Nexus, but in June 2024, European colocation firm Penta Infra acquired the 10,000 sqm (107,639 sq ft), nine-story data center that will house the supercomputer for an undisclosed amount.

At the time, the company said the site would offer 7.2MW of IT load based on a 12.5 MVA renewable power feed. It added that the data center included a photovoltaic façade generating up to 0.5MW, rainwater recovery for cooling, and heat reuse via a thermal smart grid.