DTI cranks up supercomputer

Europe's fastest computer to boost science and innovation

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is investing £52m in a high-end computing environment for use by UK scientists.

The High-End Computing Terascale Resource (Hector) is being run by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) based on what will be Europe’s fastest supercomputer.

Hector is expected to have an initial peak performance in the range of 50 to 100 teraflops and processing power comparable to the world’s 10 most powerful computers. One teraflop is a trillion operations per second.

Lord Sainsbury, the DTI’s minister for science and innovation, says Hector will be indispensable for UK research scientists.

‘The computational limits of existing facilities are now being reached as new and increasingly complex research programmes place growing demands on available computing power,’ he said.

‘It is imperative that our scientists are able to access the best possible computer facilities to build on and support the work they do in the laboratory.’

Potential uses for Hector include Met Office simulations on climate change, and experiments in earth sciences, particle physics, cosmology, astrophysics, chemistry and nano science.

Hector project manager Jennifer Houghton says peak performance will be doubled in the first two years and then again after four years. ‘Scientists will access the system remotely by logging on through the internet.

‘From there they will be supported by computational science engineering and support function which we are in the process of procuring,’ she said.

‘They will help with things such as getting codes right, and doing the algorithm development,’ said Houghton.

The EPSRC is also looking for a commercial partner to host Hector, who will also be responsible for procuring and maintaining the system’s hardware. Both contracts are expected to initially last six years.

The supercomputer host will be announced in July, and Hector is due to go live in 2007.

What do you think? Email us at: mailto:[email protected]