Edinburgh-based supercomputers ‘could tackle climate change’
The supercomputer represents the equivalent of 12,000 desktops. Picture: Neil Hanna
TO THE untrained eye, they may look like a row of large storage units covered in colourful children’s murals.
But scientists say Edinburgh’s new generation of £125 million supercomputers has the potential to discover new inhabitable planets, tackle climate change and even solve the global financial crisis.
The UK’s most powerful supercomputers, based in Edinburgh, have a combined power equivalent to every person on the planet carrying out 250,000 calculations per second all at the same time.
And the machines, known as HECToR and BlueGene, have entered a new phase in their development.
HECToR (High-End Computer Terascale Resources), Edinburgh’s original supercomputer, housed at Edinburgh University’s Advanced Computing Facility, is entering phase three of its life, with £13.9m new funding. It is already ten times as powerful as it was when it started out in 2008.
HECToR has a memory of 90 terabytes – equivalent to more than 180,000 iPhones. It also has one petabyte of disk space for storing data. If an iPhone had that much space, it could hold 200 million tracks. To listen to each one would take from now until the year 3153.
In recent months HECToR has been joined by BlueGene, the most energy-efficient supercomputer in the world. Using only the electricity it takes to power a light bulb, it can perform the calculations of 100 laptops. It is capable of a quadrillion, or a thousand trillion, calculations a second.
Researchers say the computers will help forecast the impact of climate change, hone our understanding of the structure of matter, project the spread of epidemics and provide answers about the evolution of the universe. They will also be able to project whether planets around distant stars could be suitable for human habitation.
Among dozens of projects undertaken by the supercomputers, they have calculated how dinosaurs would have walked and tried to work out how to prevent aircraft turbulence.
Professor Arthur Trew, director of HECToR, admitted: “They really look like big wardrobes.”
However, he said they sounded like a jet engine and users had to wear ear protectors because of the amount of water needed to cool them.
David Willetts, UK minister for universities and science, who attended the launch of phase three of the superconductor project yesterday, said they were “incredibly exciting” and enabled scientists to “tackle some of the crucial scientific challenges that we face”.
“In order to out-compete we have to out-compute,” he added.
He suggested that, among their achievements could be helping businesses such as Unilever invent new shampoos because complex calculations were necessary to work out whether they would solidify over time.
When asked whether the machines could solve the global financial crisis, he replied: “Does not compute”.
But Sir Timothy O’Shea, principal of the University of Edinburgh, said he thought it was “an extremely feasible thing to aspire to”.
HECToR phase three has been funded by a £13.9m grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
Also announced at yesterday’s event was the winner of a schools art competition to design a pictorial representation of the work being carried out by HECToR. The winning picture, designed by 16-year-old Lily Johnson from Norwich, has been placed on the front panels of the computer.
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Comments
There are 83 comments to this article
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KINGFISHER1
Wednesday, February 15, 2012 at 09:55 PMYour point 81? it is unfortunate the Moderator appears to be so active.I have provided technical detail,which while I accept may appear strange,is form my point of view,entirely accurate. Post 71 made the technical point,if I am reading it correctly. It would appear that my post 42 was specifically arranged. Takes a mighty big super computer to do that.Likewise that Mighty big super computer can poke the Moderator so that my posts are MODERATED! I do enjoy these blogs,when they pass moderation. The glass or two of wine helps!
AuldLochinvar
Wednesday, February 15, 2012 at 02:28 PMPending Moderation
AuldLochinvar
Wednesday, February 15, 2012 at 01:52 PMOk, for a start, anthropogenic climate change is a reality and a menace for all of what Burns calls our "poor earth-born companions" -- not to mention oorsels. It took 64 million years for solar power, combined with tectonic catastrophes, to put coal, oil, and "natural" gas -- it isn't clean -- under the earth, including the North Sea. It's taken industrial humanity two centuries to use up at least one percent of that. That's 640 thousand years' worth! Don't forget that most of the oxygen gas we breathe was ALSO created by the Carboniferous Era. In one hour, the Earth has to radiate into space as much energy as human industrial activity uses in a year. The problem is, that carbon dioxide interferes with the radiation process.
mlaffert
Wednesday, February 15, 2012 at 10:35 AMHold on everyone, The comment in the article are just from some politicians and media writers saying what the HECToR CRAY could be user for... What it is actually used for at the moment is mainly real commercial stuff that can benefit our economy and knowledge of the natural world: https:www.hector.ac.ukcasestudies Of course there will be some readers who will argue that investment in pure research is fruitless, we should never advance, and we should all still be living in caves.
Still Douglas
Wednesday, February 15, 2012 at 12:12 AMComment removed by moderator
Still Douglas
Wednesday, February 15, 2012 at 12:11 AMComment removed by moderator
Ron Greer
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 10:50 PMSo how many wind turbines, how many pylons, how many tidal turbines, how many dammed up corries and glens, and what effect on climate change at what cost?
THX1138
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 09:45 PM#73 ...and that's apathy :-)
KINGFISHER1
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 07:57 PMThe moderator has withdrawn my comment to you 71. In short form it read, Whatever do you mean? SILVERADO
KINGFISHER1
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 07:54 PMComment removed by moderator
Mario Antoinette
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 07:42 PM72 Fair enough.
THX1138
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 06:46 PM#66 That's not nihilism, it's just plain old-fashioned, boring selfishness.
dgg
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 06:07 PM42. That's good timing!
Euan_1
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 05:48 PMNever mind this computer trying to work out the non-problem of CAGW, how about we get it to work calculating the hideous amounts of taxpayers' money worldwide which has been or is going to be wasted on the folly that is wind power? I wonder what results it would come up with? Then again, I'm sure the data fed into it beforehand would have been massaged in wind power's favour anyway...
Spooked
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 05:45 PM#58 Ah yes, but wil you keep it? Its UK funded Not Scottish.
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