PROCESSORS

A £6.25m supercomputer is set to add a massive boost to East of England research. A state-of-the-art research facility supplying high performance computing resources to researchers – the Cambridge-Cranfield High Performance Computing Facility (CCHPCF) - has been ranked among the world's top computers, thanks to the installation of a new SunFire Galaxy-class F15K supercomputer. The new hardware will allow large-scale numerical calculations - previously ruled out by memory restrictions - to be worked out for the first time. Cambridge and Cranfield researchers have put the supercomputer to work on a wide range of productive projects. Cranfield scientists will use the supercomputer to conduct research into the de-icing of aircraft, research into the strength and failure of helicopters when ditching into the sea and the analysis of data being produced by post-genomic analytical technologies. Cambridge University has a number of departments utilising the CCHPCF to assist in research including the Cavendish Laboratory, The Wellcome Institute and the department of engineering. Projects using the CCHPCF include identifying and comparing frog genes to other organisms, research into catalysts for cleaner car exhausts, and creating practical combustion systems that combine low pollutant emissions and high efficiency. The supercomputer has over 1000 processors, a benchmark speed of 1.4 Teraflops, 3 Gbytes RAM per processor and is equipped with a state-of-the-art interprocessor connector, details of which have only recently been announced by Sun Microsystems. The CCHPCF is a private computing facility within Cambridge and Cranfield University and is run by a consortium of departments. The acquisition of the supercomputer was made possible by an award of £6.25m, under the Government's science research investment fund.