Research at Southampton University is getting a multi-million-pound boost with the purchase of a supercomputer, which will be built, implemented and configured by computer and storage integrator OCF.
It will be built using IBM Idataplex server technology and will be capable of more than 74 trillion calculations per second.
The supercomputer, containing more than 8,000 processors, will be used by researchers across the university to make complex computations in fields ranging from cancer studies to climate change.
It is claimed to have a capability equivalent to around 4,000 standard office computers running simultaneously.
The computer is also intended to assist the university's medical researchers.
Andrew Collins, geneticist professor, said: 'We need extremely high levels of computing power in our work, mapping the disease genes implicated in breast cancer, IBD and glaucoma.
'With the volume of genome data increasing hugely each year, its analysis requires the most highly sophisticated facilities,' he added.
One of the key engineering groups using the computer will be the University Technology Centre for Computational Engineering, where director Prof Andy Keane and his colleagues will be using its power to improve the design of aero engines and aircraft.
Other users will be researchers in the university's Complex Systems Simulation Doctoral Training Centre, which carries out high-quality, sophisticated simulations in research areas such as climate, pharmaceuticals, bioscience, nanoscience, medical and chemical systems, transport, the environment, engineering and computing.
Dr Seth Bullock, the centre's director, said: 'Using these new facilities, we will see simulation modelling used to drive the design of new drugs tested on simulated organisms to shape our response to climate change, to redesign our transport systems and even to explore the origins of life on earth.' The university and OCF signed this contract on 11 July 2009 and IBM will receive GBP1.8m from its sale into OCF.
The half-depth form factor of IBM Idataplex servers reduces the airflow required across the components, lowering the power needed for cooling, while providing twice the number of servers in the same space as a standard 42u rack.
The rear door of Idataplex has a built-in heat exchanger that uses water to cool the expelled heat before it enters the data centre, making it more environmentally friendly to use than standard air conditioning alone.
