Europe Takes Key Step Toward Tech Independence as Homegrown Chips Reach Premier Supercomputer
Jülich, Thursday, 24 September 2026.
French designer SiPearl delivered its domestic, backdoor-free Rhea1 processors for integration into JUPITER, marking Europe’s strategic transition from semiconductor ambition to functional, independent supercomputing power.
Domestic Silicon Arrives at Jülich
In a significant move toward technological sovereignty, French designer SiPearl has initiated the delivery of its Rhea1 processors to system builder Bull for integration into the JUPITER supercomputer [1][2]. This delivery, confirmed on Tuesday, 22 September 2026, marks a critical milestone for the European Union’s first exascale supercomputer, which is hosted at the Jülich Supercomputing Centre in Germany [1][3]. The JUPITER system, which originally came online on 17 November 2025, is currently ranked fifth on the Top500 list and utilizes a hybrid architecture [1]. The integration of these domestic chips into the BullSequana XH3000 platform represents a transition from semiconductor design concepts to functional, independent supercomputing power for the region [2][4].
Technical Capabilities and Design
The Rhea1 processor is an 80-core chip built on Arm Neoverse V1 cores, featuring 61 billion transistors and 64 GB of HBM2e memory across four stacks [1][3]. The CPU-only partition of the JUPITER supercomputer is designed to contain 1,300 nodes utilizing 2,600 Rhea1 processors, resulting in a configuration of 2 processors per node [1]. This partition is estimated to deliver a total output of 5 petaFLOPS, complementing the existing Booster section which utilizes 24,000 Nvidia GH200 superchips [1]. The high memory bandwidth of 1.8 TB/s and four DDR5 memory channels make the chip particularly well suited for applications requiring efficient access to large amounts of data [1][3].
Strategic Sovereignty and Future Roadmap
Security and sovereignty are central to the deployment, with the Rhea1 CPU designed for back-door free and kill switch free operation [3]. Thomas Lippert, Director of the Jülich Supercomputing Centre, noted that bringing this European processor technology into JUPITER is an important step in making these capabilities available to the scientific community [1][3]. Looking ahead, SiPearl intends to publish consolidated benchmarking figures for the Rhea1 chip during autumn 2026, while the Alice Recoque supercomputer is scheduled to deploy SiPearl Rhea2 chips for its CPU partition [1][3]. This achievement demonstrates what Europe can accomplish by bringing together research, industry, and infrastructure to build a stronger European HPC ecosystem [2][4].