In Media:
Sir Alan Sugar unveils new High-Performance Computer Cluster
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| Sir Alan Sugar |
04 May 2007
Viglen Computer Cluster Reigns Supreme at Queen Mary, University of London
Sir Alan Sugar, Chairman of Viglen Ltd, has unveiled a new high-performance computer cluster at Queen Mary, University of London. In the month that marks Sir Alan’s 23rd anniversary in the UK computer market, Sir Alan opened the cluster – a high performance computing suite which will play a leading role in international scientific research – at the College’s Mile End campus.
The cluster has been developed by Queen Mary, University of London and Viglen, which specialises in computers and IT solutions. The cluster will enable the College to team up with international research projects and experiments, including important research into finding a cure for Malaria and searching for the secrets of matter.
One of the cluster’s major roles will involve joining with other clusters in the UK and overseas to form a computing Grid of over 100,000 processors. This Grid will analyse the deluge of data expected from the Large Hadron Colider, the world’s largest particle accelerator, which opens at CERN in Switzerland later this year. The particle physicists and computer scientists organising these clusters in the UK are part of the GridPP project.
But particle physics is just part of the work for the cluster at Queen Mary. Through its connection to the Grid, it’s available for use by the whole range of scientists, from biomedical researchers searching for better drugs for avian flu, to engineers designing fusion reactors.
The new cluster has an impressive 182 terabytes of storage. This means:
• It is 10 billion times faster than the original Amstrad computer
• It can process in one second what would have taken the first Amstrad computer 317 years
• It has the amount of memory required for 60 million MP3 music files
• It has the storage capacity of five miles worth of personal MP3 players laid out end-to-end
Sir Alan Sugar said: “Whilst many people know me for The Apprentice, my staff and I continue to work hard to be at the cutting edge of Industry. At Viglen we have been a leading provider of IT solutions to Higher Education for the last three decades and the development of this computer at Queen Mary, University of London, will hopefully enable major scientific breakthroughs in years to come.”
Dr Alex Martin who manages the cluster, at Queen Mary, University of London, said: "Computing has always been useful in science but more and more it is becoming essential. Clusters like this one make it easier and faster to obtain results in many scientific fields and for the new generation of particle physics experiments that we work with, there would be no other way to deal with the data being produced.”
Viglen Chief Executive, Bordan Tkachuk observes: “Viglen shares the same desire for excellence as Queen Mary, University of London. In tailoring our technology to deliver this High Performance Cluster, Viglen is responding to new ways of working with innovative and flexible solutions. We have been eagerly awaiting the opening of the cluster to ensure Queen Mary possesses all the processing power it needs to maintain its position at the forefront of physics research and hope that our good working relationship with the university will remain for many years to come.”
Ends
The e-Science Cluster at Queen Mary, University of London
The Department of Physics at Queen Mary has partnered with CERN , the European particle physics laboratory in Switzerland and academic institutions worldwide to play a leading role in investigating the fundamental properties of matter. Queen Mary is involved with the ATLAS experiment, a cathedral-sized detector that will produce petabytes of data in its search for the secrets of the universe, requiring a large-scale array of high-performance processors and necessitating that Queen Mary select a partner to assist in the development of its computing cluster.
Viglen Ltd, specialists in the provision of high-end integrated IT solutions to higher education, was able to respond to new ways of working, with innovative and flexible solutions. As a significant partner in the development of the e-Science High Throughput Cluster at Queen Mary, Viglen has been able to assist in maintaining the Department of Physics’ position at the forefront of particle physics.
The College recently invested in expanding the cluster with 280 custom-built Viglen dual dual-core Opteron Processor 2GHz servers, each with 2Gb SDRAM supplied in a 1u rack-mountable configuration and dual Gigabit ethernet. They are housed in the cluster's dedicated temperature controlled network room in the College’s Walter Besant Building.
The system is entirely scaleable and can easily accept extra clusters of machines and can plug-in to external Grids of processors outside the College - offering the potential of phenomenal combined power.
For more information on the e-Science cluster, please see the e-Science Cluster leaflet [PDF 728KB]
For further information, please contact:
Siân Halkyard
Acting Head of Communications
Queen Mary, University of London
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7882 7454
email: s.halkyard@qmul.ac.uk
Notes to Editors:
Queen Mary, University of London
Queen Mary, University of London is one of the UK's leading research-focused higher education institutions with some 15,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students.
Amongst the largest of the colleges of the University of London, Queen Mary’s 3,000 staff deliver world class degree programmes and research across 21 academic departments and institutes, within three sectors: Science and Engineering; Humanities, Social Sciences and Laws; and the School of Medicine and Dentistry.
Queen Mary is ranked 11th in the UK according to the Guardian analysis of the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, and has been described as ‘the biggest star among the research-intensive institutions’ by the Times Higher Education.
The College has a strong international reputation, with around 20 per cent of students coming from over 100 countries.
Queen Mary has an annual turnover of £220 million, research income worth £61 million, and generates employment and output worth £600 million to the UK economy each year.
Queen Mary, as a member of the 1994 Group of research-focused universities, has made a strategic commitment to the highest quality of research, but also to the best possible educational, cultural and social experience for its students. The College is unique amongst London's universities in being able to offer a completely integrated residential campus, with a 2,000-bed award-winning Student Village on its Mile End campus.