A major hurdle for the future of European digital infrastructure is the sheer diversity of hardware. Within the HIGHER project, RISE is leading the MetaOS initiative to address this challenge. By leveraging ColonyOS, an open-source meta-operating system developed at RISE, we are providing a unifying “brain” for heterogeneous computing environments.
Our current technical work focuses on expanding ColonyOS to support a trifecta of architectures: x86, RISC-V, and ARM. By doing so, we are moving away from siloed cloud systems and toward a seamless “compute continuum.” In practical terms, this means:
- Dynamic Workload Distribution: Whether a process belongs on a tiny IoT sensor, a local edge device, or a high-performance computing (HPC) cluster, ColonyOS identifies the most efficient environment for execution.
- Optimized Performance: This strategic placement does more than just increase speed; it optimizes data processing, storage, and networking across the entire ecosystem. This directly reduces the energy waste that often results from mismatched software and hardware setups.
We have recently completed preliminary tests with lightweight ARM and RISC-V systems. As the task scales up, we are entering a collaborative phase in which we help our partners at HIGHER to integrate these capabilities into Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service PaaS use cases.
Software, however, is only half the story. RISE is also responsible for the physical “stress testing” of the European server prototypes developed within the project.
Once these prototypes are ready, they will be brought to our ICE Data Centre in Luleå, Sweden. This world-class, controlled laboratory environment allows us to push hardware to its absolute limits. Our testing protocol includes:
- Thermal Design Power (TDP) Analysis: We will measure exactly how much heat these chips generate under heavy IT loads to ensure thermal stability.
- Energy Efficiency Benchmarking: Using advanced air-cooling techniques, we will evaluate how well these prototypes perform relative to their power consumption: a critical metric for the HEATWISE mission.
- Real-World Simulation: Following ASHRAE environmental standards, we will transition from laboratory stress tests to real-life performance assessments within a
live operational data center environment.
Ultimately, our goal is to ensure that European servers are not just standalone machines, but integrated components of a sustainable, sovereign digital infrastructure. By combining the orchestration power of ColonyOS with the physical validation capabilities of the ICE Data Centre, RISE is helping HIGHER build a more flexible and efficient future for the continent’s computing needs.