National supercomputer doubles in size

IBM to supply final upgrade for National Academic Supercomputer

The National Academic Supercomputer has been upgraded to four times its original size to allow it to carry out complex engineering and environmental simulations.

Based at Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre (EPCC) at Edinburgh University, the system was originally commissioned by the UK research councils in 2002 and has now been doubled in power twice.

The new upgrade means the IBM supplied HPCx system now has 2,500 parallel processors and will be capable of calculating helicopter rotor wash and doing coastal oceanographic modelling.

The doubling of supercomputer's capability is more advanced than anticipated when the contract for the service was agreed in 2002, says Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council chief executive, Professor John O'Reilly.

'The combination of world-class technology, facilities management and computational science and engineering support has enabled impressive advances by UK research groups,' he said.

'This upgrade will help to enhance the UK's ability to carry out research dependent upon high performance computers.'

As well as rotors and coastal research, the system is also to be used to research new gels for healthcare, food preservation and use in drilling, and develop understanding biomolecules such as DNA and RNA.

Large machines like HPCx can be used for ground-breaking calculations and simulations that can't be effectively done on less capable systems, says University of Edinburgh's director of EPCC, Professor Arthur Trew.

'For this to work effectively we require the computer to be powerful, scaleable and reliable which this system has been,' he said.

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