BAE looks to supercomputer savings

Defence giant hopes to save £500,000 a year in operational costs

Supercomputers are helping BAE with aircraft testing

BAE Systems belives it will save £500,000 a year in running costs after implemeneting supercomputers at its Warton site.

The machines are providing more than 100 times the capacity of a top of the range PC.

Tim Amphlett, BAE Systems' IT support manager, says the previous computers were approximately ten years old and had limited capability.

‘The new facility has over ten times the capacity of its fore-runner and is used for complex calculations in structural, aerodynamic and electromagnetic engineering,’ said Amphlett.

Benfits of the new installation include the ability to perform more tasks at a faster rate.

The supercomputers have enabled the company to reduce the amount of live aircraft testing through processing calculations and generating test data.

Cost savings have resulted though the reduction of live aircraft flight tests.
Amphlett says another major benefit is the ability to upgrade the machines.

‘This means that, just like a home PC, as demand grows, the capacity of the computers can be increased to cope,’ he said.