The University of Adelaide is investing another $1 million to increase the capacity of its supercomputer, to meet what it says is growing demand and to ensure researchers continue to have access to high-performance computing (HPC) services.
The University launched its “world class” ‘Phoenix’ supercomputer in 2016, giving researchers as much as 30 times more computing power than before.
But the university says that since last year’s launch, demand has increased by 300%, with 30 new researchers utilising its capacity every month – and this growth is expected to continue.
“With the rising complexity of research, high performance computing power is an essential tool for our researchers and collaborators to keep producing world-class research and innovation,” says University of Adelaide Interim Vice-Chancellor Professor Mike Brooks.
{loadposition peter}“We’ve seen that not only is demand for computational support increasing rapidly, users are becoming more diverse, with significant take-up in the arts and professions.”
Professor Brooks says the new investment will double storage capacity to 700 terabytes and increase processing speed by 50% to 450 teraflops.
“Already we’ve seen that HPC has dramatically lifted research performance and assisted in attracting computational researchers, international collaborations and industry partnerships,” Professor Brooks concluded.