Bull Information Systems has signed a strategic alliance deal valued at £800,000 with the University of Liverpool. Under the terms of the deal, which incorporates a five-year partnership and support agreement, Bull will implement an integrated 40-teraflop HPC system for the university, based around its own ‘Bullx’ blade hardware and supercomputer software suite.
The University of Liverpool has established a significant group of high-performance computing users who increasingly rely on access to a centrally housed cluster resource. The current clusters have reached ‘end of life’ and the university wants to invest in a replacement. At the same time, it has a longer-term goal to ensure that the quality and profile of HPC-based research it is undertaking is well served by the investment made.
Cliff Addison, manager of advanced research computing at the University of Liverpool said: 'Bull was attractive to us because it could provide us with high-quality HPC solutions and also access to extensive expertise and new thinking in HPC; ongoing guidance in implementing and running the solutions and the ability to test out the latest technologies at its industry-leading benchmarking facility.'
'The world’s leading economies are increasingly recognising the importance of high-performance computing in driving faster, more efficient design and ultimately competitive edge,' added Andrew Carr, CEO for Bull UK & Ireland. 'European governments, businesses, centres of research and academia like the University of Liverpool are increasingly catching up with their counterparts in the US in this respect. Bull is proud to be in the vanguard of this new focus on HPC excellence.'
