IT Distance Learning News

University to buy supercomputer

Southampton University is to buy a supercomputer ranked in the world's fastest 100.

Researchers at the university will be free to use the IBM iDataPlex computer which is capable of 74 trillion calculations per second.

Andrew Collins, a professor of genetics at the university, said: "We need extremely high levels of computing power in our work mapping the disease genes implicated in breast cancer and glaucoma.

“With the volume of genome data increasing hugely each year, its analysis requires the most highly sophisticated facilities," he added.

The supercomputer will be the first IDataPlex system IBM has offered for public use.

Custom-designed and built by computer integrators OCF, the new system will have a capability equivalent to around 4,000 office computers.

Based in Sheffield, OCF designs high-performance computing for the public and private sector.

The firm currently works with just over a fifth of the UK's universities and a number of clients from manufacturing and financial industries.