It is not just another server, it is THE server
It seems that president Claudia Sheinbaum ran out of patience with our Wi-Fi going down every time it rains and decided to go to the other extreme. In a move reminiscent of when Tony Stark built his first suit in a cave, but with more bureaucracy involved, he announced the construction of the “Coatlicue” supercomputer. No, it is not the name of a new TikTok influencer; It is the technological project that aims to be the most powerful in all of Latin America.
With an investment of 6 billion pesos (yes, you read correctly, with ‘m’ for ‘Wednesday, what do I spend so much on?’), this technological beast will begin construction next year. During the now traditional morning conference – that morning reality show that we all watch while drinking coffee –, the federal president dropped the bomb. It turns out that not only will it help Mexican scientists stop suffering with computers that look like they come from the floppy disk era, but, in his words, it will boost national development. Basically, it’s like going from having a bicycle to flying a jet, but for data.
Why so much computing power?
Imagine having to solve transportation, health and climate change problems with a calculator like the ones we used in elementary school. Well, that’s how we were, as Sheinbaum explained with an enthusiasm that we normally only see in the National Lottery draws. “Coatlicue” will allow Mexico to fully enter the world of artificial intelligence and massive data processing, things for which we currently have the capacity of a tamagotchi.
But don’t worry, it won’t all be boring science. José Antonio Peña Merino, the head of the Digital Transformation and Telecommunications Agency – that is, the man who probably has the most powerful router in the country –, detailed the plan. In two years we will have this public supercomputer that will be able to perform 314 billion operations per second. To give you an idea, that is as if all Mexicans made 25,000 calculations each, at the same time, without making a mistake even once. It would even work for grocery bills!
The machine will have 14,480 GPUs, which are not security guards, but the brains that will make it work. This will allow high-level scientific research, support entrepreneurial projects (goodbye, apps that get stuck when you open them) and even provide service to private initiative. Basically, it’s a tech bro’s wet dream, but made a reality with public funds and a name that honors our Mexican heritage. A true declaration of principles.
So get ready, because while other countries discuss whether AI will take away their jobs, in Mexico we are building the tool to, perhaps, create the next global technological advance. Or at least to stop giving us 404 errors when we want to see memes. It’s all about winning.
Do you think this project will put Mexico on the technological map? Share this news on your social networks and tell us what problem you think “Coatlicue” should solve first. Explore more content about innovation and technology on our site.
