22 November, 2012, by Francine Pickering

High Performance Computing capacity available for local businesses

Local businesses in engineering, pharmaceutical development, the creative and digital industries, aerospace and automotive, as well as other sectors, are now able to take advantage of facilities in high performance computing (HPC) that have been developed thanks to £3.5 million of EPSRC funding in a project known as Midplus.

These businesses are invited to work with the University to develop their own high performance computing, whether this is exploring a move to using HPC for the first time, or complementing their existing capacity for specific projects, new requirements, or additional needs. The facility can support requirements such as data processing, computer simulations, and image rendering without the need for huge set-up costs.

It is the first time that local businesses have been offered HPC facilities in this way and, unlike standard commercially available HPC facilities, Midplus allows local businesses to agree a bespoke package which would include:

• Computing power to meet their specific needs, not “over sold”
• The ability to adapt this easily as requirement change
• Support such as installation of software
• Consultancy from academic specialists with expertise in particular sectors

The University of Nottingham is working with the University of Warwick, University of Birmingham, and Queen Mary, University of London to extend the computing power available to the universities and to local businesses, including:

• A 6,000 core cluster
• A high-throughput 2,900 core cluster
• A large data store and archive, mirrored between two sites

If your business could benefit from some additional PHC capacity for:

• Testing the viability of using HPC
• Developmental projects
• Needs for increased processing power
• Or any other requirement you have identified

Please contact Eleanor Turpin to arrange an initial meeting to identify whether Midplus can help.

Eleanor is also keen to hear from anyone within the University already working with local businesses on projects where this additional capability would be useful.

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