A 3,000-core Sandy Bridge-based supercomputer, implemented and managed by Bull Information Systems, will power the new HPC Midlands facility at Loughborough University. In addition, Bull is helping to make the supercomputer available as a managed service to both industry and academia in the region and beyond via the JANET network.
HPC Midlands is a joint venture between Loughborough University and the University of Leicester and is backed by £1 million funding from the UK Government agency, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). Based at the University’s Science and Enterprise Park, the new facility provides state-of-the-art e-infrastructure for research and industry.
Bull’s success in winning the contract followed a tender and a competitive bid process. Bull’s success was partly based on its existing relationship with Loughborough University, where the technology it supplied had consistently proved to be stable, highly-available and operationally and environmentally efficient.
'HPC Midlands is a ground-breaking new initiative which is all about universities and research organisations working more closely with industry to improve the economic environment,' says Andrew Carr, CEO, Bull UK & Ireland. 'It is about prioritising research that has direct economic benefits for both academic and industrial organisations.'
The Bull supercomputer is already being used for testing and live operational projects, and combined with high-performance computing (HPC) expertise from the two universities is now available for businesses to use as a tool for driving innovation.
