---
_id: '62981'
abstract:
- lang: eng
  text: "Otus is a high-performance computing cluster that was launched in 2025 and
    is operated by the Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing (PC2) at Paderborn
    University in Germany. The system is part of the National High Performance Computing
    (NHR) initiative. Otus complements the previous supercomputer Noctua 2, offering
    approximately twice the computing power while retaining the three node types that
    were characteristic of Noctua 2: 1) CPU compute nodes with different memory capacities,
    2) high-end GPU nodes, and 3) HPC-grade FPGA nodes. On the Top500 list, which
    ranks the 500 most powerful supercomputers in the world, Otus is in position 164
    with the CPU partition and in position 255 with the GPU partition (June 2025).
    On the Green500 list, ranking the 500 most energy-efficient supercomputers in
    the world, Otus is in position 5 with the GPU partition (June 2025).\r\n\r\n\r\nThis
    article provides a comprehensive overview of the system in terms of its hardware,
    software, system integration, and its overall integration into the data center
    building to ensure energy-efficient operation. The article aims to provide unique
    insights for scientists using the system and for other centers operating HPC clusters.
    The article will be continuously updated to reflect the latest system setup and
    measurements. "
author:
- first_name: Sadaf
  full_name: Ehtesabi, Sadaf
  id: '116116'
  last_name: Ehtesabi
- first_name: Manoar
  full_name: Hossain, Manoar
  id: '114619'
  last_name: Hossain
  orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0737-7981
- first_name: Tobias
  full_name: Kenter, Tobias
  id: '3145'
  last_name: Kenter
- first_name: Andreas
  full_name: Krawinkel, Andreas
  id: '15275'
  last_name: Krawinkel
- first_name: Lukas
  full_name: Ostermann, Lukas
  id: '69976'
  last_name: Ostermann
- first_name: Christian
  full_name: Plessl, Christian
  id: '16153'
  last_name: Plessl
  orcid: 0000-0001-5728-9982
- first_name: Heinrich
  full_name: Riebler, Heinrich
  id: '8961'
  last_name: Riebler
- first_name: Stefan
  full_name: Rohde, Stefan
  id: '34009'
  last_name: Rohde
- first_name: Robert
  full_name: Schade, Robert
  id: '75963'
  last_name: Schade
  orcid: 0000-0002-6268-5397
- first_name: Michael
  full_name: Schwarz, Michael
  id: '5312'
  last_name: Schwarz
- first_name: Jens
  full_name: Simon, Jens
  id: '15273'
  last_name: Simon
- first_name: Nils
  full_name: Winnwa, Nils
  id: '61189'
  last_name: Winnwa
- first_name: Alex
  full_name: Wiens, Alex
  id: '23522'
  last_name: Wiens
  orcid: 0000-0003-1764-9773
- first_name: Xin
  full_name: Wu, Xin
  id: '77439'
  last_name: Wu
citation:
  ama: Ehtesabi S, Hossain M, Kenter T, et al. <i>Otus Supercomputer</i>. Vol 1. Paderborn
    Center for Parallel Computing (PC2); 2025. doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.48550/ARXIV.2512.07401">10.48550/ARXIV.2512.07401</a>
  apa: Ehtesabi, S., Hossain, M., Kenter, T., Krawinkel, A., Ostermann, L., Plessl,
    C., Riebler, H., Rohde, S., Schade, R., Schwarz, M., Simon, J., Winnwa, N., Wiens,
    A., &#38; Wu, X. (2025). <i>Otus Supercomputer</i> (Vol. 1). Paderborn Center
    for Parallel Computing (PC2). <a href="https://doi.org/10.48550/ARXIV.2512.07401">https://doi.org/10.48550/ARXIV.2512.07401</a>
  bibtex: '@book{Ehtesabi_Hossain_Kenter_Krawinkel_Ostermann_Plessl_Riebler_Rohde_Schade_Schwarz_et
    al._2025, place={Paderborn}, series={PC2 Tech­nic­al Re­port Series}, title={Otus
    Supercomputer}, volume={1}, DOI={<a href="https://doi.org/10.48550/ARXIV.2512.07401">10.48550/ARXIV.2512.07401</a>},
    publisher={Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing (PC2)}, author={Ehtesabi, Sadaf
    and Hossain, Manoar and Kenter, Tobias and Krawinkel, Andreas and Ostermann, Lukas
    and Plessl, Christian and Riebler, Heinrich and Rohde, Stefan and Schade, Robert
    and Schwarz, Michael and et al.}, year={2025}, collection={PC2 Tech­nic­al Re­port
    Series} }'
  chicago: 'Ehtesabi, Sadaf, Manoar Hossain, Tobias Kenter, Andreas Krawinkel, Lukas
    Ostermann, Christian Plessl, Heinrich Riebler, et al. <i>Otus Supercomputer</i>.
    Vol. 1. PC2 Tech­nic­al Re­port Series. Paderborn: Paderborn Center for Parallel
    Computing (PC2), 2025. <a href="https://doi.org/10.48550/ARXIV.2512.07401">https://doi.org/10.48550/ARXIV.2512.07401</a>.'
  ieee: 'S. Ehtesabi <i>et al.</i>, <i>Otus Supercomputer</i>, vol. 1. Paderborn:
    Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing (PC2), 2025.'
  mla: Ehtesabi, Sadaf, et al. <i>Otus Supercomputer</i>. Paderborn Center for Parallel
    Computing (PC2), 2025, doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.48550/ARXIV.2512.07401">10.48550/ARXIV.2512.07401</a>.
  short: S. Ehtesabi, M. Hossain, T. Kenter, A. Krawinkel, L. Ostermann, C. Plessl,
    H. Riebler, S. Rohde, R. Schade, M. Schwarz, J. Simon, N. Winnwa, A. Wiens, X.
    Wu, Otus Supercomputer, Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing (PC2), Paderborn,
    2025.
date_created: 2025-12-09T09:11:04Z
date_updated: 2026-03-25T11:50:31Z
ddc:
- '004'
department:
- _id: '27'
- _id: '518'
doi: 10.48550/ARXIV.2512.07401
file:
- access_level: open_access
  content_type: application/pdf
  creator: deffel
  date_created: 2025-12-09T09:19:12Z
  date_updated: 2026-03-25T11:50:30Z
  file_id: '62982'
  file_name: 2512.07401v1.pdf
  file_size: 4535595
  relation: main_file
file_date_updated: 2026-03-25T11:50:30Z
has_accepted_license: '1'
intvolume: '         1'
keyword:
- Otus
- Supercomputer
- FPGA
- PC2
- Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing
- Noctua 2
- HPC
language:
- iso: eng
oa: '1'
page: '33'
place: Paderborn
publication_status: published
publisher: Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing (PC2)
report_number: PC2TR-2025-1
series_title: PC2 Tech­nic­al Re­port Series
status: public
title: Otus Supercomputer
type: report
user_id: '23522'
volume: 1
year: '2025'
...
---
_id: '53663'
abstract:
- lang: eng
  text: 'Noctua 2 is a supercomputer operated at the Paderborn Center for Parallel
    Computing (PC2) at Paderborn University in Germany. Noctua 2 was inaugurated in
    2022 and is an Atos BullSequana XH2000 system. It consists mainly of three node
    types: 1) CPU Compute nodes with AMD EPYC processors in different main memory
    configurations, 2) GPU nodes with NVIDIA A100 GPUs, and 3) FPGA nodes with Xilinx
    Alveo U280 and Intel Stratix 10 FPGA cards. While CPUs and GPUs are known off-the-shelf
    components in HPC systems, the operation of a large number of FPGA cards from
    different vendors and a dedicated FPGA-to-FPGA network are unique characteristics
    of Noctua 2. This paper describes in detail the overall setup of Noctua 2 and
    gives insights into the operation of the cluster from a hardware, software and
    facility perspective.'
article_type: original
author:
- first_name: Carsten
  full_name: Bauer, Carsten
  id: '90082'
  last_name: Bauer
- first_name: Tobias
  full_name: Kenter, Tobias
  id: '3145'
  last_name: Kenter
- first_name: Michael
  full_name: Lass, Michael
  id: '24135'
  last_name: Lass
  orcid: 0000-0002-5708-7632
- first_name: Lukas
  full_name: Mazur, Lukas
  id: '90492'
  last_name: Mazur
  orcid: ' 0000-0001-6304-7082'
- first_name: Marius
  full_name: Meyer, Marius
  id: '40778'
  last_name: Meyer
- first_name: Holger
  full_name: Nitsche, Holger
  id: '15272'
  last_name: Nitsche
- first_name: Heinrich
  full_name: Riebler, Heinrich
  id: '8961'
  last_name: Riebler
- first_name: Robert
  full_name: Schade, Robert
  id: '75963'
  last_name: Schade
  orcid: 0000-0002-6268-5397
- first_name: Michael
  full_name: Schwarz, Michael
  id: '5312'
  last_name: Schwarz
- first_name: Nils
  full_name: Winnwa, Nils
  id: '61189'
  last_name: Winnwa
- first_name: Alex
  full_name: Wiens, Alex
  id: '23522'
  last_name: Wiens
  orcid: 0000-0003-1764-9773
- first_name: Xin
  full_name: Wu, Xin
  id: '77439'
  last_name: Wu
- first_name: Christian
  full_name: Plessl, Christian
  id: '16153'
  last_name: Plessl
  orcid: 0000-0001-5728-9982
- first_name: Jens
  full_name: Simon, Jens
  id: '15273'
  last_name: Simon
citation:
  ama: Bauer C, Kenter T, Lass M, et al. Noctua 2 Supercomputer. <i>Journal of large-scale
    research facilities</i>. 2024;9. doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.17815/jlsrf-8-187
    ">10.17815/jlsrf-8-187 </a>
  apa: Bauer, C., Kenter, T., Lass, M., Mazur, L., Meyer, M., Nitsche, H., Riebler,
    H., Schade, R., Schwarz, M., Winnwa, N., Wiens, A., Wu, X., Plessl, C., &#38;
    Simon, J. (2024). Noctua 2 Supercomputer. <i>Journal of Large-Scale Research Facilities</i>,
    <i>9</i>. <a href="https://doi.org/10.17815/jlsrf-8-187 ">https://doi.org/10.17815/jlsrf-8-187
    </a>
  bibtex: '@article{Bauer_Kenter_Lass_Mazur_Meyer_Nitsche_Riebler_Schade_Schwarz_Winnwa_et
    al._2024, title={Noctua 2 Supercomputer}, volume={9}, DOI={<a href="https://doi.org/10.17815/jlsrf-8-187
    ">10.17815/jlsrf-8-187 </a>}, journal={Journal of large-scale research facilities},
    author={Bauer, Carsten and Kenter, Tobias and Lass, Michael and Mazur, Lukas and
    Meyer, Marius and Nitsche, Holger and Riebler, Heinrich and Schade, Robert and
    Schwarz, Michael and Winnwa, Nils and et al.}, year={2024} }'
  chicago: Bauer, Carsten, Tobias Kenter, Michael Lass, Lukas Mazur, Marius Meyer,
    Holger Nitsche, Heinrich Riebler, et al. “Noctua 2 Supercomputer.” <i>Journal
    of Large-Scale Research Facilities</i> 9 (2024). <a href="https://doi.org/10.17815/jlsrf-8-187
    ">https://doi.org/10.17815/jlsrf-8-187 </a>.
  ieee: 'C. Bauer <i>et al.</i>, “Noctua 2 Supercomputer,” <i>Journal of large-scale
    research facilities</i>, vol. 9, 2024, doi: <a href="https://doi.org/10.17815/jlsrf-8-187
    ">10.17815/jlsrf-8-187 </a>.'
  mla: Bauer, Carsten, et al. “Noctua 2 Supercomputer.” <i>Journal of Large-Scale
    Research Facilities</i>, vol. 9, 2024, doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.17815/jlsrf-8-187
    ">10.17815/jlsrf-8-187 </a>.
  short: C. Bauer, T. Kenter, M. Lass, L. Mazur, M. Meyer, H. Nitsche, H. Riebler,
    R. Schade, M. Schwarz, N. Winnwa, A. Wiens, X. Wu, C. Plessl, J. Simon, Journal
    of Large-Scale Research Facilities 9 (2024).
date_created: 2024-04-26T07:39:41Z
date_updated: 2024-04-26T08:44:30Z
ddc:
- '004'
department:
- _id: '27'
- _id: '518'
doi: '10.17815/jlsrf-8-187 '
file:
- access_level: open_access
  content_type: application/pdf
  creator: deffel
  date_created: 2024-04-26T07:30:20Z
  date_updated: 2024-04-26T08:35:17Z
  file_id: '53664'
  file_name: Noctua2_Supercomputer.pdf
  file_size: 3825480
  relation: main_file
file_date_updated: 2024-04-26T08:35:17Z
has_accepted_license: '1'
intvolume: '         9'
keyword:
- Noctua 2
- Supercomputer
- FPGA
- PC2
- Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing
language:
- iso: eng
oa: '1'
project:
- _id: '52'
  name: 'PC2: Computing Resources Provided by the Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing'
publication: Journal of large-scale research facilities
publication_status: published
status: public
title: Noctua 2 Supercomputer
type: journal_article
user_id: '8961'
volume: 9
year: '2024'
...