The use of High-Performance Computing in Portugal has developed over several decades. In 1988, FCCN installed the first supercomputer made available to the national scientific community.

Between 2006 and 2007, HPC systems were installed at the University of Coimbra, the University of Porto, Instituto Superior Técnico, the National Laboratory for Civil Engineering and the University of Minho. In 2010, within the framework of the National Grid Initiative, Portugal’s first HPC system with a low-latency network open to the entire community was installed in Lisbon.

From 2017 onwards, the Advanced Computing Laboratory at the University of Coimbra and the National Distributed Computing Infrastructure — INCD — provided HPC resources under the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology’s National Roadmap for Research Infrastructures.

In the following years, national capacity was strengthened through systems such as Oblivion, at the University of Évora, and BOB, at the Minho Advanced Computing Center, through a partnership between the Foundation for Science and Technology and the University of Minho.

One of the most significant milestones in this development was the installation of the Deucalion supercomputer under the European EuroHPC initiative. Located at the Minho Advanced Computing Center, Deucalion significantly increased the computing capacity available in Portugal and supports scientific, technological and business projects requiring substantial processing resources.

The evolution of INCD into the National Advanced Computing Centre — CNCA represents a new stage in the development of advanced computing in Portugal. CNCA is now the national reference infrastructure in this field, responsible for managing, operating and developing High-Performance Computing, distributed computing, cloud, data and Artificial Intelligence resources and services.

CNCA contributes to the operation and support of Deucalion and participates in strategic European initiatives and networks, including the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, EGI, IBERGRID, the European Open Science Cloud, EuroCC and the BSC AI Factory.

Working with universities, research centres and other organisations within the national scientific and technological ecosystem, CNCA and NCC Portugal aim to bring these resources closer to the scientific, academic, business and public administration communities, supporting skills development, innovation and the broader uptake of advanced computing across the country.