14 November 2011

STFC collaborates with industry - shaping tomorrow's supercomputers

The next generation of supercomputers will lead the way in tackling the world's health, energy and environmental challenges, from predicting climate change to developing new medical treatments or fuel sources. They will be capable of performing a billion, billion calculations per second. However, the technology and software that is needed to power this capability is way beyond what is currently in use on today's supercomputers.

STFC has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Intel, a world leader in computing innovation, to develop and test the technology that will be required to power the supercomputers of tomorrow, pushing all existing boundaries in hardware and software.

Intel's researchers are currently designing and developing the next generation of advanced computer chips, which will be the building blocks necessary to achieve the capability, performance and reliability of these high performance supercomputers. STFC's computational scientists at its Daresbury Laboratory in Cheshire will be working with Intel's most advanced computer chips using their specialist skills in software development. Under this initial one year agreement, STFC and Intel will work together to test and evaluate Intel's hardware with leading software applications to ensure that scientists are ready to exploit Intel's supercomputer systems of the future.

Minister for Universities and Science David Willetts said: "Supercomputing is a vital tool for businesses and universities alike - it improves research and manufacturing processes and reduces the time and money it takes to bring a product to market. This agreement brings together our leading edge researchers at the Daresbury Laboratory and Intel, one of world's best and well-known technology companies. It is a strong signal that our £145 million investment in e-infrastructure will drive growth and attract significant private investment. It will also keep the UK at the very forefront of this important area of research and development."

John Bancroft, Associate Director of Business Development at STFC, said: "Computational science is playing an increasingly important role in enabling researchers to tackle problems of immediate and significant relevance to society. This is the first time that STFC has worked with Intel under an official agreement and we are therefore particularly excited to have the opportunity to contribute to Intel's understanding of the detailed challenges of exascale supercomputers."

"High performance computing will lead the way in addressing the challenges faced by the world today", said Karl Solchenbach, Director of European Exascale Computing at Intel. "We are therefore particularly excited to be working with STFC in the quest to develop the technology inside the supercomputers of tomorrow. We will use STFC's leading expertise in scalable applications to address the challenges of exascale computing in a co-design approach."

This MoU represents STFC's latest collaboration with industry to discover and develop the unparalleled computing capabilities behind the 21st century's supercomputers.