ENGINEERING

A "green" supercomputer called Alice has been unveiled.

Alice, which has processing power equivalent to more than 2,000 desktop computers, will help University of Leicester researchers find answers to mysteries ranging from the origins of the universe to the future of the economy.

The 100-terabyte system is 10 times more powerful than the one it replaces.

It will allow researchers to work out problems which an ordinary computer could take months to unscramble.

It will be used by researchers and PhD students.

University senior IT manager David Carter said: "Your normal computer would chug away for weeks or even months trying to work out problems that this system can just spit out answers for.

"When good research staff look at where to work we are hoping this will attract them to Leicester."

The £2.2 million supercomputer, made by HP, has conducted three pilot projects.

It has already been used by astronomy researchers to simulate what will happen when galaxies collide.

Economics researcher Daniel Ladley has used Alice to simulate what stock market crashes and bankruptcies would do to the economy.

He said: "I'm really impressed with the new computer.

"I've also been using it to simulate the effect that changing the voting system would have on the Government.