The UK has chosen Edinburgh as the site of its first next-generation supercomputer, capable of advancing medicine, clean energy and artificial intelligence up to 50 times faster than current systems.
The University of Edinburgh is home to a new kind of supercomputer that is sure to fulfill its potential to improve lives across the UK. The supercomputer relies on the technology and expertise of a supercomputer called Isambard-AI, which will be acquired by the city of Bristol later this year.
Michelle Donelan, UK Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, said: “If we want the UK to remain a world leader in scientific discovery and technological innovation, we need to strengthen the systems that enable discovery.”
She added: “This new UK Government-funded supercomputer will provide UK researchers with an ultra-fast and versatile resource to support pioneering work in AI security, medicines and life-saving technology. Clean, low-carbon energy »
The UK announcement follows the European Union's announcement last week that it will build its first supercomputer in Germany.
Supercomputers are high-performance computing systems that can perform fifty million floating-point operations per second or one billion floating-point operations per second.
This computing power helps solve problems in fields such as fusion energy, materials science, drug development, climate change, and astrophysics.
ARCHER2 is currently the most powerful computer system in the UK, with peak performance of 28 petaflops (or 100 billion floating point operations per second), not even in the top ten in the world.
Scottish Foreign Secretary Alastair Jack said: “We see the important work ARCHER2 is doing in Edinburgh and the new system keeps Scotland at the forefront of science and innovation.”
He added: “In addition to supporting researchers in the field of artificial intelligence security, this project will provide job opportunities for highly skilled people and support economic growth in the region.”
Plans for a supercomputer are part of a £900 million investment in the UK to improve computing power.