Edinburgh set to host new exascale supercomputer

Originally announced in March as part of a £900 million investment to upgrade the UK’s high-end computing capability, the new supercomputer will be used to bolster research into areas including medicine, climate science and clean energy. The latest announcement confirms that the exascale computer will be sited at the University of Edinburgh, home to the UK’s current top-end system, ARCHER2.

Exascale-level computing has only recently been achieved and is emerging as the next benchmark for supercomputing. The new systems are built to carry out extremely complex functions with increased speed and precision, enabling researchers to accelerate their work into challenges such as the development of new drugs and advances in nuclear fusion.

“State-of-the-art compute infrastructure is critical to unlock advances in research and innovation, with diverse applications from drug design through to energy security and extreme weather modelling, benefiting communities across the UK,” said UKRI chief executive, Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser.