Cambridge boffins unveil Dell supercomputer

The boffins at the University of Cambridge have joined forces with Dell to unveil one of the world's fastest supercomputers.

The machine, called Darwin, consists of 2,340 computers arranged in a cluster. It has been ranked as Europe's seventh fastest supercomputer, and the 20th fastest in the world, according to the top 500 list.

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Dr Paul Calleja, director of high performance computing at Cambridge told silicon.com he chose Dell based on price. Darwin only cost £2m to install but the fastest supercomputer in the UK (ranked 12th in the world) cost £40m with only double the speed of Cambridge's supercomputer, Calleja added.

The supercomputer uses Dell's ninth-generation servers and storage units with Dual-Core Intel Xeon processors to provide scientists with super-fast simulations.

Calleja added: "We are now in discussions with Dell and Intel for development and research efforts."

The supercomputer will be used across departments at the university for various applications including weather simulations, modelling how air flows over a car and attempts to determine the origins of the universe.

Stephen Hawking is one of the supercomputer's most prolific users, Calleja added.