Supercomputer aims to cut energy costs

Maxwell could deliver computing power for ten times less energy use

A green supercomputer has been launched today which has been designed to deliver higher computational performance using 10 times less power.

The supercomputer, known as Maxwell and built by the University of Edinburgh, uses Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) as an alternative to conventional microprocessors for real world industrial applications.

The Fhpca (FPGA High Performance Computing Alliance) has spent the past two years and £3.6m, including funding from Scottish Enterprise, developing Maxwell.

Mark Parsons, commercial director of the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre (Epcc), the supercomputing centre that built Maxwell, says the involvement of local firms is crucial.

'The Fhpca project has allowed Epcc to do what it does best: engage with local small businesses to develop new technologies and new solutions and help them to grow their businesses. Maxwell represents a major opportunity for Scotland in this exciting technology space,' said Parsons.

Graham Fairlie, project manager at Scottish Enterprise's Enabling Technology and Engineering team, says Maxwell could have a number of practical uses.

'The high performance technology could be used to deliver significant improvements in productivity potential in Scotland's key industries such as financial services, energy and life sciences,' he said.

Maxwell will prove a valuable resource for industries with massive processing requirements such as drug design, military defence, medical imaging and financial engineering.

It was designed and manufactured by Scottish SMEs: Nallatech and Alpha Data.

During 2007 to 2008, FHPCA will run a series of seminars to introduce Maxwell to UK industrial sectors. The first event will be in Edinburgh in May this year.