Maisons-Laffitte (France) and Barcelona (Spain), 22 June 2021 – SiPearl, the company that is designing the high-performance, low power microprocessor for the European exascale supercomputer, is opening its Barcelona office as the second operational subsidiary outside of France. This opening comes one year after opening its office in Duisburg, Germany.

SiPearl has chosen the capital of Catalonia in order to be closer to its scientific and academic partners in Southern Europe, including the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) which is one of the main centers of competence in HPC worldwide. At the heart of this ecosystem, SiPearl SL will be the group's research and development center dedicated to collaborative programs. Anna Riverola (45, M.Sc in satellite remote sensing and geographic information systems from the Autonomous University of Barcelona) will be appointed as its head.

Previously Strategic Project Manager at BSC, Anna Riverola was responsible for the overall project management of the European Processor Initiative (EPI) consortium whose objective is to promote the return of high-performance microprocessor technologies in Europe. There she worked in collaboration with Philippe Notton, former Managing Director of the EPI which gave substance to this project by creating the privately held company SiPearl.

“ I am delighted to join SiPearl to lead its subsidiary in Catalonia and drive collaborative programs across Europe. This challenge is a continuation of my previous responsibilities within the scientific and industrial EPI consortium which is at the origin of SiPearl. Indeed, after having managed the research programs upstream of the project, I will now follow their implementation, the first step of which will be the launch of our first-generation microprocessor ”, explains Anna Riverola.

” We welcome the arrival of SiPearl, which will enrich Barcelona's IT ecosystem, and we hope to continue working together on the development of high performance computing technologies with the other partners of the EPI project ”, adds Mateo Valeo, Director of Barcelona Supercomputing Center.

“ After opening our Duisburg office in May 2020, we have chosen Barcelona as the site for our second subsidiary because it provides an experienced talent pool in high performance computing. It brings us closer to leading players to continue our joint research work and undertake new projects. I am delighted that Anna Riverola is joining the SiPearl team. In particular, she brings the strong skills she has developed and demonstrated within the EPI consortium in the management of ambitious research programs involving numerous European partners ", concludes Philippe Notton, CEO and founder of SiPearl.

In addition to recruiting and leading an experienced team, Anna Riverola will be responsible for managing all of the group’s research programs at European level.