MeluXina – high-performance computing
With MeluXina, Luxembourg has one of the most powerful high-performance computers in Europe. The supercomputer has a computing power of 18 petaflops, i.e. 18 million billion operations per second. To illustrate the size in numbers: 18,000,000,000,000,000. MeluXina has thus made it into the top 50 of the world ranking of the 500 most powerful high-performance computers.
Luxembourg’s Melusina myth
It is said that Count Siegfried of the Ardennes was a keen hunter. On one of his hunting trips he lost his way and ended up in the beautiful Alzette valley. While admiring the area and viewing the ruins of an old Roman castle on an ominous-looking cliff, he heard someone singing. Siegfried looked around and soon saw a beautiful girl sitting high up among the ruins of the old castle. It was Melusina.
The count instantly declared his love for her and asked for her hand in marriage. Melusina accepted Siegfried’s offer, but she insisted on two conditions: firstly, she should never have to leave the cliff, and secondly, she needed to be alone every Saturday.
The count swore on his honour that he would meet these demands.
In order for the marriage to take place Siegfried had to become the owner of the Bockfiels. He sold his land around Feulen in Ettelbrück to the Abbey of St. Maximin who, in turn, gave him the Alzette valley containing the rock that Melusina would not leave. Years passed. Siegfried remained true to his word, and he never even asked her what she was doing on Saturdays. However, as his friends became aware of the arrangement, they suggested that he should look, just once, to find out what his wife was doing in her room at that time. Siegfried couldn’t resist. Peeping through the keyhole, he saw Melusina lying in her bath and realised that his wife’s feet had been replaced by a slimy fish tail. Siegfried gasped in horror and Melusina, realising what had happened, vanished into the cliff, never to be seen by Siegfried again. Today, it is still rumoured that Melusina shows herself every seven years and waits for someone to free her from the Alzette River.
To come back to the name of the Luxembourg national supercomputer which is partially based on water cooling, we decided to change the s of Melusina into an X. Thus the link with the nation branding of Luxembourg was established.
About MeluXina’s layout
LuxProvide asked three young Luxembourg graphic designers to work on the design of the layout that is printed on the national supercomputer.
The goal was to combine Luxembourg nation branding with the legend of MeluXina.
The proposal of Noé Dinis, owner of the design studio Nova, has been selected as he managed to combine the two items in an elegant way.
About Nova (www.novastudio.lu)
Nova is a creative studio working in various design areas including visual identities, print, editorial, packaging and webdesign. Nova has managed graphic design projects for private companies, public institutions and cultural associations.
