High performance research

It's modelled the evolution of the universe, simulated the behaviour of proteins and explored how different bridge types respond to weather conditions and turbulence. Now the High Performance Computing (HPC) facility at The University of Nottingham has been overhauled - more than doubling the system's capacity to the equivalent of 2,500 home PCs and putting 110 terabytes of disc space at the institution's disposal. The original HPC was launched in June 2005, and is thought to have attracted more than £15m of research funding to the University. More than 1.4 million jobs have run on the system since then, aiding research in fields from maths and physics to geography. But four years is a long time in computing, and the HPC is now ready for an update. "Four years ago we were one of the first universities in the country to invest in this kind of high performance facility," said Dr Frazer Pearce, Associate Professor and Reader in Astrophysics and member of the HPC management team. "Now we're working with leading global technology company HP to install a new system that will be six times as fast, giving academics access to one of the most powerful computers in the country." The speed of calculation on the new facility's 1,600 processors means that a job that would take more than 100 years on a standard computer will take just a month on the HPC.