The University of Edinburgh’s supercomputer centre, EPCC, is adding new computing hardware and expanding its data storage to help UK researchers prepare for the next generation of national supercomputers. Supercomputers are essential for modelling new materials, designing more efficient engines, and investigating climate change. But the technology is shifting: next-generation accelerators can make machines faster while using less electricity. This upgrade gives researchers a testbed to rewrite their computer programmes so they run efficiently on future national systems after the current ARCHER supercomputer. The expanded data storage also lets scientists manage, share, and move the growing flood of data these machines produce. If successful, this medium-sized supercomputer will work alongside other similar systems funded across the UK, forming a coherent national service. Most of its computing time will be freely available to researchers nationwide. A web-based portal, offered free to other funded centres, will make it easier for users to access whichever system best suits their problem. The immediate impact is on research infrastructure itself—enabling faster scientific discovery in materials science, engineering, and climate science, rather than directly changing everyday life.
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EPCC is the supercomputer centre at the University of Edinburgh. Throughout our 26-year history, EPCC has significant experience of running supercomputer services for both academic and industrial researchers. We currently run the UK's national supercomputer, ARCHER, that is used for modelling new materials, designing more efficient engines and investigating climate change. This proposal is to enhance an existing supercomputer with additional compute nodes, and to add a significant amount of next generation accelerators. The design of supercomputers is going through a period of change and accelerators are becoming increasingly important to provide faster supercomputers while using less electricity. This enhanced system will be useful for researchers across the UK to prepare their computer programmes to make effective use of future national supercomputer systems after ARCHER. As computers become more powerful, they generate ever-increasing amounts of data. Managing and analysing this data is very important to help researchers make new scientific discoveries. This proposal also includes increasing the size of the large data storage facility at EPCC. This will allow researchers to store their data, share it with other people, move it between different supercomputers, and make new discoveries that will improve society and people's lives. There will be a number of these medium-size supercomputers funded alongside the existing national supercomputer, ARCHER. These will have different features and so will be useful for different research problems. It is important that these supercomputers work together to provide maximum benefits for everyone. We will work with all the other successful proposals to provide a coherent service across all the different supercomputers. Most of the time on our supercomputer will be freely available for researchers from throughout the UK. We will work together with the other successful proposals to ensure that researchers can get access to the most appropriate system/ In addition, we have developed a we.-based portal that makes it easier for users to access the different systems. As part of our proposal, we will work with all the other successful proposals so that they can use our web-based portal completely free of cost.
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