The UK's Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) has ordered two large scale capacity supercomputer systems from Bull, with a combined peak performance in excess of 75 TeraFlops. The systems chosen are the latest bullx supercomputers launched by Bull last year.
Dr Graeme Nicholson, AWE's director of its science and technology programme, said: 'This investment will enable us to make advances on a range of scientific fronts - including weapon physics, materials science and engineering - which will underpin our continued ability to underwrite the safety and effectiveness of the Trident warhead in the Comprehensive Test Ban era.'
Ken Atkinson, AWE's HPC strategy manager, added: 'Each of the two bullx supercomputer systems has about the same performance as our current capability system. Use of these new systems will provide us with a high performance, high-throughput, capacity-biased production facility, which will enable our demanding numerical modelling to be undertaken within acceptable elapsed times.'
The first of the two supercomputers has already been successfully installed at the AWE site, following a staging process at Bull's manufacturing and development plant in Angers, France. The second system has also been installed and will be brought into service during late spring 2010.
