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The UK's Fastest Supercomputer

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the hello-computer dept.

bmsleight writes "The Guardian has a story on the HECToR, The largest supercomputer in the UK — around five times more powerful than its predecessor, HPCx, which is also at the University of Edinburgh. It measures up well internationally, sitting at 17 in the top500.org list of the most powerful computers in the world."

10 of 131 comments (clear)

  1. UK commitment to science by BWJones · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I have really been impressed with the level of commitment to science, research and education outside of the US right now and efforts like HECToR only consolidate that impression. While we here in the US have essentially dropped the ball on education and science funding for the past oh, six or seven years, the rest of the world is really stepping up. Of course I have mixed feelings about this as I am a US citizen who works in science and education, but it is also good to see other countries stepping up. For instance, a few months ago, I visited the University of Leicester and was truly impressed with the focus and quality of the research going on in the UK. Their commitment to bioscience funding is something that the US government should be very careful about as we stand to lose some valuable talent overseas if we are not careful...

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    1. Re:UK commitment to science by oojimaflib · · Score: 5, Funny

      In other news, bioscientists at the university of Leicester have developed a new species of grass. It promises to be at least two times greener than comparable varieties in the US.

    2. Re:UK commitment to science by BWJones · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Ah, but you see I am looking *down* the road a little bit and now where we are currently at. Congratulations to your family on their current or future academic accomplishments, but you have to know that the statements that I made are based on factual conditions of funding from both the NIH and the NSF whose budgets have not even kept up with inflation.

      but as a college graduate in engineering from (early in) that time frame,

      You might have picked the right field for short term gains.

      with younger siblings (my youngest is 11 years my junior) interested in education/scientific fields:

      Things may be fixed by the time your siblings are interested, but it will take at least a decade to fix the damage that has been done to science and science funding over the past several years. In the early 90s we spent much effort funding science and education and encouraging students to go into these fields, only to pull the rug out from underneath them when it came time to have them get started becoming independent scientsts. I've been fortunate in terms of funding and worked hard to maintain our position, but many junior (and senior) scientists are very worried about their funding.

      one brother a pilot with a BS,

      Then both you and he should know what a mess our current domestic airline industry is and unless he is a pilot for Delta, he is not doing nearly as well as he used to before the airlines had to deal with the increased costs of security, delays due to insufficient infrastructure, fuel costs that have tripled, etc...etc...etc...

      one becoming a teacher,

      God bless them for going into such a low paying career. I briefly attempted teaching junior high school before returning to graduate school when I realized that even as little as a graduate student makes, it was still more than what a teacher makes. If we truly placed a value on our teachers, we would not have the lack of commitment to the profession in terms of requirements for standards and low pay.

      my sister studying to be a medical doctor

      I am a principal in a medical clinic where we have about a dozen docs, our own MRI and CT scanners and about 100 total employees. On top of that, I teach medical students and am involved in the selection of medical students at my university. I think that I can say with some authority that medicine in this country has changed and not for the better. Even worse, we have not made any progress over the last few years on fixing any of the inherent problems with providing medical services in this country and in fact, have accelerated the damage being done by further limiting our options. Your sister is heading into a profession that is horribly broken in the US and is in need or a dramatic overhaul. Hopefully she can be a part of the solution...

      Hey, in fact, we are in such desperate need of physicians if you know a neurologist or a cardiologist that wants to joint our practice, send them my way. If we hire them, I'll cut you a check on the spot for $10,000. I am serious. There are rural places in this country where physicians are simply, almost impossible to find.

      and my youngest brother still in high school, but very into science

      Cool. As one in science, I would very much like to encourage him. But we need to fix things to enable us to continue to stay a leader.

      - I'd have to disagree. I could go on and on ...

      Because we live in a (mostly) free country, that of course is your prerogative. But ask anyone in the trenches of science and education and they would have to be honest with you and say how things are. From this scientists/educators perspective, we need to change our approach.

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  2. 17th isn't good enough by damburger · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The UK GDP is 5th in the world (nominal) or 6th in the world (purchasing power parity). If our best supercomputer is coming in at 17th, we aren't spending enough on research.

    Not to belittle this project, of course, building the worlds 17th fastest supercomputer is an achievement in anyone's book - but it is a sign of where the UK government is weak.

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    1. Re:17th isn't good enough by AvitarX · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Wouldn't it make sense to compare total computing power to GDP, or at the least total scientific computing power?

      I would doubt for example you would have the same complaint if the UK had the 17-100 spots on the list.

      It could very well be that the UK is spending a lot more on research, but does not like to spend it on large super computersm or even spends it partnering with facilities in other countries.

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    2. Re:17th isn't good enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The UK GDP is 5th in the world (nominal) or 6th in the world (purchasing power parity). If our best supercomputer is coming in at 17th, we aren't spending enough on research.

      I'm not convinced this is a logical conculsion. 11 of the faster computers are in the US, which is a much bigger, richer nation than the UK and very much a special case. So we're 6th out of the remaining countries, which seems fairly reasonable. Anyhow, a more meaningful measure of whether the UK is punching its weight might be something like 'total supercomputer capacity per unit of GDP' or something like that.

  3. 17th isn't bad by magarity · · Score: 5, Funny

    It measures up well internationally, sitting at 17
     
    The British don't mind being at any number as long as the best French *whatever* is lower ranked - 19 in the case of the latest supercomputer list. Although they might be a little out of sorts that Spain is above them at 13.
     
    Note: if you are British or have any British friends, the above is 'funny' or 'insightful', not 'flamebait' or 'troll'.

    1. Re:17th isn't bad by funkatron · · Score: 3, Funny

      Note: if you are British or have any British friends, the above is 'funny' or 'insightful', not 'flamebait' or 'troll'.

      Anyone that needs telling is clearly not British.

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  4. Cray XT4 Supercomputer by icehawk55 · · Score: 5, Informative

    The article really didn't say much about HECToR itself. It's a 60 cabinet Cray XT4 system that currently has over 5500 AMD dual core processors. We'll be upgrading it in stages over the next couple of years to over 250 Teraflops. Including some cabinets of the new Black Widow Vector product, now called the Cray X2 system. The Cray team, myself part of it, is actually a multinational effort. I'm a US citizen who is headed over to maintain the system, we have a Brit on the team and the third is also from outside the UK. It's an interesting situation. The biggest UK system, being maintained by two expats and a local. (-: ice_hawk55

  5. Re:Nuclear stockpiles by icehawk55 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The people who truly understood how our Nuclear stockpile worked are all older and retiring. For years and years it's not been a field of study that was popular with Phd students. Now we're in the situation where the people who know what's going on are retiring and there are not enough new folks coming down the line that understand what's going on. Add to that the fact that you can no longer actually set one of these beasts off and they have been sitting idle for decades. What's the state of the current stockpile? The only way to predict how these decades old weapons will react is to simulate them with a supercomputer as best you can.