SiPearl Delivered Rhea1 Processor Samples to Bull
The Rhea1 CPU integrates into the BullSequana XH3000 platform to power Europe's first exascale supercomputer.
Updated on Sept. 22, 2026 in Semiconductors
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SiPearl has delivered samples of its Rhea1 processor to Bull, which has begun integrating the chips into the BullSequana XH3000 platform. This hardware deployment marks a development-stage milestone for the JUPITER supercomputer, currently under construction at the Jülich Supercomputing Centre.
Why it matters
The Rhea1 processor serves as the foundational CPU architecture for JUPITER, which is designed to become the first exascale supercomputer in Europe. This project highlights a critical push toward regional self-sufficiency in high-performance computing infrastructure.
The Rhea1 processor features 80 Arm Neoverse V1 cores alongside four stacks of HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) and four DDR5 memory interfaces. These specs represent the core compute and memory bandwidth capacity designated for the CPU blade of the JUPITER machine.
The players
SiPearl
A fabless semiconductor company focused on developing high-performance, low-power microprocessor technology for the European supercomputing market.
Bull
A brand of Atos, this company specializes in building high-performance computing clusters and the BullSequana architecture.
Jülich Supercomputing Centre
A major research institution in Germany that operates high-end supercomputers for scientific and industrial computational workloads.
EuroHPC Joint Undertaking
A European initiative that pools resources to develop a world-class supercomputing and quantum computing ecosystem in Europe.
The details
Bull is currently incorporating the Rhea1 chips into its BullSequana XH3000 platform, a modular supercomputing system designed for extreme scalability. The Rhea1 architecture utilizes Neoverse V1 cores, an Arm-based design optimized for high-performance workloads, while leveraging HBM—a specialized memory type stacked vertically to decrease latency and increase data throughput—to feed the processor blades at speeds necessary for exascale computing.
Timeline
- 2026-09-22
SiPearl reported the delivery of Rhea1 processor samples to Bull.
The Tech Race
The delivery of Rhea1 samples marks a significant step for the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking JUPITER project, which aims to establish a sovereign European exascale capability. This development follows a pattern set by other national exascale programs to reduce reliance on third-party silicon architectures.
This development impacts high-performance research communities by moving JUPITER closer to full operational status. Commercial availability of the Rhea1 architecture remains restricted to the institutional supercomputing project, with no current timeline provided for wider enterprise or retail release.
The takeaway
The successful integration of Rhea1 silicon into the BullSequana XH3000 platform will be the primary technical milestone to track for the JUPITER project. Industry observers should watch for public benchmarks of the final machine to confirm whether the Rhea1 core architecture meets its design targets for exascale energy efficiency.
Further reading
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