Supercomputer launched to boost university collaboration with industry

Published on 14 March 2013

A new High Performance Computing Centre has been launched that will provide Northern based Universities with access to one of the UK’s most powerful computers.

The new N8 High Performance Computing (N8 HPC) centre provides access to supercomputing facilities for the Universities of Liverpool, Durham, Lancaster, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield and York – an established collaboration that collectively form the N8 Research Partnership – and their industry partners.

Businesses will be offered easy access to the facilities, alongside consultancy and e-infrastructure training.

Based at the University of Leeds and run jointly with the University of Manchester, the £3.25m facility offers high performance computing on a scale which previously has not been readily available to researchers in the North. N8 HPC operates Polaris, one of the 250 most powerful computers in the world that is capable of a peak performance of 110 trillion operations per second – the approximate equivalent to half a million iPads.

Enhancing the University's capacity

Commenting on the facility, Professor Dinah Birch, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Research and Knowledge Exchange, said: "N8 HPC will enhance the University's capacity in high-performance computing, and lead to opportunities for more effective collaboration with businesses."

Funded by the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC), the centre will provide a major boost by enabling academic and private sector researchers to build more realistic models involving large amounts of data and to undertake more complex analyses in many research fields including life sciences, energy, digital media and aerospace.

Researchers at Liverpool who are interested in using the facility should contact Jake Gannon, Head of Infrastructure in Computing Services – email bjjgann@liverpool.ac.uk or call 794 4458.