In 2013, when TotalEnergies installed its first industrial supercomptuer at the CSTJF in Pau, it needed a name. Since the 1980s, all the Company’s computers were named after islands. The newest arrival, faster and more powerful than its predecessors, was christened Pangea, after the Carboniferous supercontinent (-359 to -299 million years).
Over the years, the supercomputer family gradually got larger: Pangea 1 in 2013, Pangea 2 in 2016 - the 11th supercomputer in the world according to the TOP 500 ranking, Pangea III in 2019, which brought with it a five-fold increase in the Company’s computing power and tripled its storage capacity, and finally Pangea 4 in 2023. Greener than its older siblings, it consumes 87% less energy than Pangea 2 and contributes to TotalEnergies’ greenhouse gas emissions reduction objectives.
Pangea III, storage equivalent to three million Blue Ray movies
A supercomputer is a set of machines. For Pangea II, 32 computing racks or "huge cabinets" full of electronic components and servers, plus a further 15 storage racks. All the hardware is maintained at a constant temperature by a hydraulic cooling system. The machine room is located at the CSTJF in Pau. A third of the developers from the Scientific Computing team (25 people) work on the administration of the machines, while the remaining two-thirds work on developing and optimizing the codes. The computing power of Pangea III, replacing Pangea 1, is 25 petaflop, i.e. the equivalent of 130,000 laptop computers. Thanks to its supercomputer, TotalEnergies has pushed back the boundaries of exploration and improved the quality of seismic imaging in geologically complex areas. The computing power and algorithms convert field data into functional images of the subsurface, which are crucial to optimizing well production and to identify optimal well locations.
"Thanks to Pangea, TotalEnergies has developed real expertise in the field of high-performance computing, competencies that are of great interest for both for the oil & gas sector and new energies."
Jean-Baptiste Richard,
Head of the Scientific Computing department – Centre Scientifique et Technique Jean Feger – CSTJF Pau
Pangea 4: the green generation
In 2024, Pangea 4 replaced Pangea 2. The new system was designed to meet TotalEnergies’ needs over the period 2024-2028, for geoscience computations of course, but also for CO₂ simulation as part of capture and geological storage projects, methane reduction calculations, wind flow simulations for wind farm design, and simulations on biofuels and polymers. Pangea 4 is a hybrid solution that combines a physical machine on site, and access to computing capacities in the Cloud.
It has many “new generation” assets. Pangea 4 is less power-hungry, and consumes 87% less electricity, i.e. a reduction of 776 TCO₂eq per year. Its highly energy-efficient processors provide a computing power of 5.5 Gflops per Watt consumed, against 1.4 Gflops for Pangea 2. Less voluminous, 7 computing racks replace the 59 cabinets for Pangea 2. The machine is versatile and scalable, sized to support current facilities and meet the needs of wind power and the geological storage of CO₂. Access to the Cloud completes the system and provides regular technological updates, access to the best technologies and is used to adapt technology to the code rather than the code to the technology. The Cloud also means a reduction in the carbon footprint of TotalEnergies data centers. Resources can be mobilized on demand if the computing requirements of new energies suddenly increase.
"TotalEnergies has defined a specialty sector on scientific and high-performance computing, which gives us access to cutting-edge competencies in forward-looking areas such as scientific development, applied mathematics, and high-performance computing infrastructures. Competencies that are in increasingly high demand, and will be used more and more frequently in the coming years."
Fabrice Cantos,
HPC infrastructure specialist – Centre Scientifique et Technique Jean Feger – CSTJF Pau
