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IBM Press Release

UK Science extends to new fields of research with IBM supercomputer

Warrington, UK, 7th November, 2006. Today the third and final phase of HPCx, the UK National Academic Supercomputer, was formally accepted into service by the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

When originally commissioned by the UK Research Councils in 2002 it was immediately designated as one of the top 10 largest supercomputers in the world. In 2004, the capability of HPCx to run scientific applications was doubled, and it has now been doubled again, to in excess of 2500 processors.

HPCx is a tightly coupled high-performance computing system comprising IBM (NYSE:IBM) System p575 high-end compute servers, and is used by leading research groups in the UK to study a wide range of Computational Science and Engineering challenges.

Professor John O'Reilly, Chief Executive Officer for EPSRC, says that 'The International Review of Research Using High Performance Computing in the UK, published in December 2005, stated that the UK has a well thought-out investment strategy for HPC platforms. HPCx is one element of this strategy and can be justifiably proud of the excellent service it has provided to the academic community. The combination of world-class technology, facilities management and computational science and engineering support has enabled impressive advances by UK research groups. The doubling of its capability, using IBM technology which is more advanced than anticipated when the contract for the service was agreed in 2002, will help to enhance the UK's ability to carry out research dependent upon HPC.'

Professor Arthur Trew, Director of EPCC at the University of Edinburgh, says "We believe that the right way to use large machines like HPCx is for ground-breaking calculations and simulations that can't be effectively done on less capable systems. However, for this to work effectively we require the computer to be powerful, scaleable and reliable. Over the past four years, the IBM systems have proved to be all three and we are looking forward to the new opportunities enabled by the latest upgrade."

Professor Paul Durham, Director of the Computational Science and Engineering Department at the CCLRC Daresbury Laboratory says, "HPCx has been a partnership all down the line - between Edinburgh, Daresbury, IBM, EPSRC and the UK research community. Our joint vision for high end computational research has always been to couple the operation of the systems closely with the expertise needed to write, develop, tune and support the codes that scientists actually run, and to do this in collaboration with the scientists themselves.

HPCx has allowed UK researchers to examine scientific problems in ways previously unavailable. Specific examples of results that have been produced include:

• New Gels. Researchers at the University of Edinburgh have invented a new generic route to gel formulation. These gels have the capability for their properties to be highly tuned, allowing them to be selected for different applications such as personal care, foodstuffs, drilling muds, and pharmaceuticals. This world-leading research has been published in the high impact-rating journal Science (309, 2198, 2005).
• Transport in Biological Cells. Scientists from University College London have developed an understanding of the transport of biomolecules like DNA, RNA and poly-peptides across protein membrane channels in biological cells. The transport of these systems is of major significance in the research of cell function. This award winning research won the HPC Analytics Challenge Award at Super Computing 2005 and the ISC Life Sciences Award at the International Supercomputer Conference 2006.
• Helicopter Rotor Wake Simulations. Researchers at the University of Bristol have modelled the aerodynamics of helicopter rotor blades in exceptional detail on HPCx. These highly accurate rotor wake simulations are essential for both the design of civil helicopters, in particular to reduce noise pollution, and for the military, in order to avoid aircraft detection. This work has been published in the International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering. (68, 632, 2006).
• Coastal Ocean Modelling. The Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory have tackled coastal ocean modelling at an unprecedented detail, running one of the largest ever models of the North Western European Continental Shelf. The model now has sufficient resolution to represent many of the small scale processes identified as playing a significant role in shelf seas, such as eddies and internal waves, but on a shelf-wide scale.

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