PANGEA 4: supporting the energy transition with our new supercomputer
TotalEnergies’ next-generation supercomputer, Pangea 4, is up and running. Let’s take a look at a strategic technological achievement for the Company, that puts us among the top tier players in digital simulation.
Pangea I, II, III: three generations of supercomputers
In 2013, TotalEnergies launched Pangea, the first industrial supercomputer developed by the Company’s Scientific and Technical Center (CSTJF) in Pau, France. Its arrival marked the entry of our systems into the petaflops domain (floating-point operations per second, a unit for measuring the computing speed of an IT system). Pangea I was able to complete 1,015 operations per second. That power was increased fivefold for Pangea II, commissioned in 2016, which was the world’s eleventh most powerful supercomputer in their biannual ranking. In 2019, Pangea III had theoretical power of 31.7 petaflops, the equivalent of 170,000 laptops. In the space of a decade, three generations of this supercomputer have succeeded one another, to go ever further in modelling and simulation.
Pangea 4: a more powerful and more sustainable hybrid supercomputer
Although Pangea III is still in service, Pangea 4 joined the ranks of TotalEnergies’ supercomputers in early 2024.Combining computing power with energy efficiency, Pangea 4 is a hybrid solution consisting of a physical machine in Pau and access to computing capacity in the cloud - the Pangea@Cloud machine. The cloud allows us to benefit from regular updates and stay at the cutting edge of supercomputing technology. Smaller and more energy-efficient than its predecessor, the compact Pangea 4 uses almost 90% less electricity, meaning a considerable reduction in the carbon footprint of our data centers.
Scientific supercomputing is contributing to the energy transition.
Owning our own supercomputing power means we can forecast production and determine ourselves where to site new facilities, in order to optimize their output. Initially developed for image processing, seismic acquisition, reservoir simulation and geological basin modelling for our exploration and production activities, Pangea is now open to a range of simulations that are fundamental to our activities: wind flow simulations for the design and siting of wind farms; simulations of reservoir storage capacity and assessment of well integrity as part of our carbon capture and geological storage (CCS) projects; calculations of methane emissions reduction; simulations on biofuels and polymers.
© TotalEnergies
Pangea 4:
1.6 petaflops of power, equivalent to over a million billion operations per second
© Lutt Julien - Capa - TotalEnergies
“As yet another demonstration of the Company’s pioneer spirit, the latest incarnation of Pangea strengthens our lead in industrial digital simulation. It combines supercomputing capacity with cloud computing, allowing the Company to meet the growing and increasingly diverse needs of our activities, especially in new energies.”
President, OneTech