IDRIS (Institut du développement et des ressources en informatique scientifique), founded in November 1993, is the CNRS national centre for very high performance intensive digital computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI), at the service of the scientific communities of public or private research (under the condition of open research with publication of results), dependent on extreme computing.

IDRIS (www.idris.fr) is both a computing resource centre and a centre of expertise in HPC and AI. It is a CNRS research support unit, part of the CNRS Computing and Data Mission (MiCaDo) and administratively attached to the Institute of Information Sciences and their Interactions (INS2I), but its vocation within the CNRS is multidisciplinary. The operating procedures of IDRIS are similar to those of very large scientific facilities. It is currently managed by Pierre-François Lavallée

The main objective assigned to IDRIS is to contribute as effectively as possible to the excellence of scientific research in the field of modelling, HPC and AI. To achieve this, IDRIS operates on two levels:

• As a service structure, by setting up and operating a cutting-edge, diversified, versatile and scalable HPC environment, adapted to the very great scientific challenges in the fields of digital simulation and AI. This environment includes a high-performance user support interface that offers very high added value services. Thus, IDRIS is not only involved in consulting and training but also in the development and optimisation of scientific codes.
• As a technology transfer agent, from research and development in computer science to the national high-performance computing infrastructures. Located at the intersection of science (digital simulation) and technology (scientific computing) and very close to scientific users, IDRIS is in a privileged position for the progressive integration of new technologies into the national scientific research system. In the 1990s, this activity resulted in a major contribution to the dissemination of parallel computing. Today, IDRIS is pursuing this type of action to encourage the transition to massive parallelism associated with the use of hardware accelerators, particularly GPUs. These developments represent major challenges for the years to come in the fields of HPC and AI.